Call to Action on 2019-2020 Commitments

Update: On 29 January 2020, the Permanent Mission of Germany hosted a follow-up event to track progress made towards the commitments. Updates with further details on states' commitments have been provided in the accordion section below.

Update: As of September 2019, the commitments have now been published in their full form, and are listed below in the accordion section of the page. A total of 64 states, two regional bodies (African Union and European Union), 9 UN entities, and WILPF made commitments to strengthening implementation of the WPS agenda in advance of the 2020 20th anniversary of 1325.

 

Background

In conjunction with the 23 April 2019 Security Council Open Debate on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Germany, the United Kingdom, and UN Women co-hosted an event calling for commitments to the WPS Agenda in advance of the 2020 20th Anniversary of UN SCR 1325.

At this event, 65 Member States, UN agencies, regional bodies, and civil society organisations made commitments to WPS, and others submitted commitments in writing. Over half (35 out of 65) of statements included a commitment to creating, modifying, or implementing a 1325 National Action Plan (NAP). Read our analysis of the event here.

 

Types of commitments to Women, Peace and Security

There was a high level of commitment to creating, implementing, and supporting the creation of 1325 National Action Plans. 26 out of 64 member states (41%), plus the European Union, made commitments to creating National or Regional Action Plans. 21 states, plus the African Union and European Union, committed to deepening implementation of existing NAPs or RAPs. 4 states (Australia, Finland, Japan, Sweden) committed to supporting the development of other states' NAPs.

A total of 21 states made explicit financial commitments. The Canadian government will be committing up to $300m to a partnership that supports gender equality and local women's organizations, including in conflict-affected and fragile countries. 

Seven commitments (made by Canada, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Slovenia, and the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs) make explicit reference to disarmament and arms control in the context of WPS. Latvia together with Sweden, Namibia and NGO Control Arms is organizing training courses on better understanding on GBV as part of arm transfers and application of the ATT and risk assessment criteria. Finland and Ireland will be supporting the implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty, with respective focuses on young women and the GBV obligations. Slovenia will also highlight the WPS agenda in relation to export obligatioins. Two commitments, made by Italy and the Office of Disarmament Affairs, align implementation of the SDGs with that of WPS.

There was a continued focus on peacekeeping and security sector reform, including support for the Elsie Initiative, gender mainstreaming, and education on WPS. 22 states made commitments to peacekeeping, and 17 made commitments to reforms in the security sector that relate to education, integration of gender expertise, and capacity building. 

Overall, there was also a strong commitment to participation and inclusive peace processes. 12 out of 64 states (19%) made commitments on participation, and 17 out of 76 total commitments (22%). UN Women committed to support the implementation of the operational recommendations on women’s participation in peace processes in the Secretary-General’s annual reports on WPS with the goal of having no UN-supported peace processes that exclude women by 2020. Afghanistan, Canada, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Slovenia,  Sweden, and the UK committed to supporting women's participation in peace processes as well.

Commitments to Women, Peace and Security in advance of 20th Anniversary of 1325: 23 April 2019

29 January 2020: Monitoring Progress and Looking Ahead: Interactive Stock-Taking on High Level Commitments Made on Women, Peace and Security ahead of the 20th Anniversary of 1325

INVITATION - Monitoring Progress and Looking Ahead: Interactive Stock-Taking on High Level Commitments Made on Women, Peace and Security ahead of the 20th Anniversay of 1325 - Wednesday 29 January 2020

Albania

Security Sector: Will seek to increase women’s participation in armed forces, police and in peacekeeping operations.

Update as of 29 January 2020: 

Albania managed to send two women peacekeepers to South Sudan, and the Ministry of Defense is discussing the possibility and hoping to continue this kind of engagement.

Albania is working on a comprehensive strategy to integrate and align the WPS agenda into its national development policies, similarly to how they have successfully integrated the SDGs.

Albania is also seeing a positive trend in more women in armed forces. Currently women constitute 18% of armed forces in Albania and the government is working to increase this percentage.

 

National Action Plan: Establishing a reporting system for the implementation of the Action Plan for the Implementation of Resolution 1325.

Update as of 29 January 2020

Albania has managed to establish this reporting mechanism for the Action Plan for the implementation of 1325. To summarize, it has two monitoring groups on two levels which report every six months and report on policies and make targeted recommendations to respective government offices to improve approaches to implementation.

Challenge: Albania does not have a dedicated budget for the implementation of the National Action Plan, which could cause problems with budgeting for the future.

 

Capacity Building: Provide training for Members of Parliament, Government officials, including security officials and civil society on UNSCR 1325 and the prevention and response to conflict-related sexual violence.

Update as of 29 January 2020: Albania has managed 12 trainings on UNSCR 1325, prevention and response to CRSV. These initiatives were organized in cooperation with NGOs and not a direct engagement of state authorities.

Afghanistan

National Action Plan: Currently revising the Afghanistan NAP 1325 and prioritizing implementation, M&E and financing mechanisms, and working on integrating the women, peace and security agenda in national legislation.

Participation: Afghanistan pledges to actively and meaningfully engage women in the ongoing peace process and negotiations with the Taliban.

Argentina

Participation: Argentina pledges to enforce and implement the Gender Parity Law in political representation, passed on November 17, 2017 (Law 27,412). This Act will be applied for the first time in the next general elections for in October 2019.

Monitoring: The National Institute of Women (INAM) will monitor compliance of the Parity Law and plans to create an Observatory on Women's Political Participation, which will provide monitoring of compliance with the new law.

Australia

Financial commitments: Pledges AUD 1.2 million to the Myanmar-Australia Peace Support programme.

Update as of 29 January 2020: WPS will continue to be a key feature of our MAPS investment which will be active throughout 2020 (investment extended until end of 2021). MAPS remains a practical and implementable commitment up to October 2020.​

Focus on providing employment opportunities for women as part of the Australian’s humanitarian support through the Mines Advisory Group in Sri Lanka.

Funding the Child Development Initiative in Sri Lanka to provide counselling and empowerment for war-affected female-headed households and the Association for War Affected Women in Sri Lanka, which promote women’s leadership as part of post-war reconciliation.

 

Commits to support rollout of gender-responsive budgeting to delivercommitments in Timor Leste’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.

Update as of 29 January 2020: Australia’s Governance for Development Program (GfD) continues to support gender-responsive budgeting to ensure ministries systematically take into account the priorities of women in budget allocation, implementation and monitoring – including resourcing for Timor-Leste’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. GfD supported Timor-Leste to develop policy guidance and assisted the development and roll out of gender budget markers and indicators across ministries. These tools were used for the first time by all public agencies in 2020 budget preparations.​

 

Security Sector: The Australian Defense Force has established 10 full-time gender advisers, and the Australian Federal Police pledges to embed gender advisors in all missions. Externally, Australia will assist in implementation of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Gender Strategy (2019-2021).

Update as of 29 January 2020

The Australian Federal Police continues to train and embed gender advisors and focal points in its International missions and posts. During 2019 AFP Gender Advisors placed within the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste supported the development and implementation of Gender strategies with partner police agencies.

The Australian Defence Force has established ten full time Gender Advisor positions, in the following areas:

  • Director Gender, Peace Security, responsible for oversight of WPS activities and implementing the National Action Plan

  • Three Service Gender Advisors (Army, Navy, Air Force)

  • Three deployed Gender Advisors (Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle East Region)

  • Gender Advisor dedicated to training and running the ADF Operational Gender Advisor Course

  • Two Gender Advisors responsible for integrating gender in operational planning and execution

  • The Australian Defence Force was a stakeholder in working groups for the second National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, providing advice and guidance on the integration of gender perspectives into military operations and planning.

 

National Action Plan: Commits to continue implementing Australia’s National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery 2015-2019.

Update as of 29 January 2020

Since April 2019, the Australian Government has continued to implement its Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) to combat modern slavery in global supply chains. This includes:

  • hosting an international conference on the Act in June 2019, with over 400 business and civil society representatives, including representatives from more than 18 different countries; and

  • releasing detailed guidance for business on compliance with the Act in September 2019.

The Government has also strengthened its response to forced marriage by amending the Criminal Code to explicitly criminalise all marriages involving children under the age of 16 years.

The AFP is committed to working further on and continuing the implementation of Australia’s National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery 2015-2019, especially in South East Asia and the South Pacific.

 

Capacity building: Provide technical support to Timor Leste Government to report on CEDAW obligations and support the Pacific Executive Women’s Leadership Forum.

Update as of 29 January 2020

The AFP is providing technical support to Timor Leste Government to report on CEDAW obligations and support the Pacific Executive Women’s Leadership Forum.

An Australian-funded Gender Advisor and two Australian Volunteers (together with UN Women funded consultants) provided technical support to the Secretariat of State for Equality and Inclusion (SEII) to prepare Timor-Leste’s 4th periodic state party report, submitted in November 2019.

 

Additional commitments shared by Australia in 29 January 2020 updates:

Ongoing support for the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (AUD 5,140,000 2016-2020)

Key partnership for DFAT's WPS work across the humanitarian- development nexus, with an additional AUD140,000 in 2019 was in support of Bangladesh operations that focus on Rohingya women.

 

Funding peak women's body Rede Feto for Timor Leste's 4th National Women Congress.

With significant support from Australia, Rede Feto and its member organisations held the fourth National Women’s Congress in October 2019. More than 1,080 women participated in 12 municipal level forums and the national conference. Both the bottom up process and the end product of the congress – a Platform of Action for Government – gave women across the country an opportunity to voice their concerns and ideas forchange, including in relation to the country's National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.

 

Continued support for WPS implementation through humanitarian action in response to Syria and Iraq crises.

Australia’s aid investments in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan in 2019 and 2020 have sought to prevent gender-based violence and provide assistance to survivors. Our initiatives in Jordan and Lebanon also support education and economic access, strengthen the voice and agency of women and girls and their civic participation within their communities. Australia is also supporting improved protection for women and girls in Iraq, and advancing their participation in security and peace dialogues.

 

UN Women multi-donor Women Peace and Security Global Facility Phase II for 2020-2023.

Negotiations underway, including on future support for empowered women/peaceful communities.

 

Organize a Women, Peace and Security event.

Australia and Timor-Leste with the G7+ to co-host a side event at the UN on progress and implementation of respective national action plans on Women, Peace and Security.​

 

Ongoing commitment to combatting modern slavery.

Home Affairs commits to:

  • consulting on and developing the next five-year National Action Plan to Combat Modern Slavery 2020-24;

  • creating a Modern Slavery Expert Advisory Group, comprised of representatives from business, academia and civil society, to provide advice to government to support effective implementation of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth);

  • funding non-government organisations in 2019-20 to deliver community-based projects that will prevent and deter modern slavery in Australia;

  • holding and supporting a second Women Against Money Laundering Workshop in 2020 for women working in anti- money laundering and counter-terrorism financing from Asia- Pacific financial intelligence, policy, customs, policing, prosecutorial and justice agencies;

  • pursuing reforms via the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Sexual Crimes Against Children and Community Protection Measures) Bill 2019 (led by the Attorney-General’s Department); and

  • working with Five Country governments and digital industry to deliver voluntary principles to guide industry action to combat online child sexual abuse.

Austria

Financial commitments: Austria pledges to build on its contribution to the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) in support of women’s participation, leadership and empowerment in situations of conflict and humanitarian crises, and to continue to engage in its activities through the Funding Board and the Steering Committee.

Update 29 January 2020: Additional contribution to the Fund’s activities, 2 Mio EUR, Uganda, 2019-2022.

Agreed to host the first “Global Women’s Forum for Peace & Humanitarian Action: Women Peacebuilders & First Responders Defining Key Priorities in 2020 and Beyond” in cooperation with the WPHF and the Global Network of Women Peace Builders (GNWP) in February 2020.

 

Pledges to support civil society organizations in the implementation of UNSCR 1325, and finance specific projects up to the amount of EUR 100,000 to combat sexual violence against women within the framework of implementing UNSCR 1325. Also pledges EUR 5 million in the fight against FGM in the next 3 years.

Update 29 January 2020: Agreed funding agreement for the programme “Improve the Implementation of UNSCR 1325” 1 Mio EUR, implemented by the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders in Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine, 2019-2022.

Contribution of USD 50,000 to the UN Women Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and USD 50,000 into the UN Women Expert Deployment Programme with Justice Rapid Response in the MENA Region with the focus to Ending Impunity for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (Investigating Crimes, Preparing for Justice).

Contribution to the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme to Eliminate FGM, 2.5 Mio EUR, 2019-2021.

Agreed funding agreement for “Sexual Reproductive and Health Rights Initiative in Amhara, Ethiopia” implemented by CARE, 2.8 Mio EUR, Ethiopia, 2019-2023.

 

Austria pledges to support a JPO position at UN Women to support the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and subsequent UNSC resolutions.

Update 29 January 2020:

Austria has financed a JPO at the Executive Office of UN Women for 1 year, with a possibility for a second year.

Further support to UN Women: Contribution to the "Programme to accelerate the implementation of the women ́s peace and security agenda for better conflict prevention and peacebuilding in the Sahel region"; 1 Mio EUR, Sahel region, 2019-2021.

 

Capacity-building: In 2019 and 2020, Austria will support the promotion of and training on UNSCR 1325 within the Austrian Armed Forces by nominating high-ranking Austrian officials to participate in the annual “Key Leader Seminar on Gender Perspectives in Military Operations” at the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations, and hold the Annual Network Meeting of Female Soldiers with a focus on UNSCR 1325.

Update 29 January 2020:

Regarding the pledge to support the promotion and training on UNSCR 1325 within the Austrian Armed Forces by nominating high-ranking Austrian officials to participate in the annual “Key Leader Seminar on Gender Perspectives in Military Operations” in 2019 and 2020 at the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operation, Austria is content to announce, that in 2019 Brigadier General CHRISTINA (Head of Planning/Joint Force Command) attended the seminar. The General Staff will continue to support this pledge by nominating a high-ranking Austrian official for this year’s seminar.

Regarding the annual network meeting of female soldiers the Military Academy invited one of Austria’s Gender Advisors toaddress the topic “Women, Peace and Security” during the ceremony.

 

Additional commitments shared in 29 January 2020 updates:

In 2020, Austria envisages to conduct the “Vienna Seminar” in cooperation with IPI with a focus on the 20th anniversary of UNSCR 1325.

Update 29 January 2020:

The Austrian Ministry of Defence and the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the International Peace Institute (IPI) will conduct the 50th Vienna Seminar on May 5th- 6th, 2020, with a focus on the implementation of the UNSCR 1325 and furthermore the role of Women, Peace and Security in Peacekeeping Operations.

Belgium

National Action Plan and Implementation: Belgium commits to hosting a consultative meeting with civil society organizations on the progress and implementation of the third Belgian National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (2017-2021).

Update 29 January 2020On 13/11 Belgium organized a mid-term review event in cooperation with ‘Platform 1325.’ The goal of the multi- stakeholder event was to evaluate the third National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security and reinforce efforts moving forward. The event was attended by more than 80 people from civil society, Parliament, advisory organs and relevant government departments. The recommendations that were put forward during the event, were subsequently brought to the intra-Belgian taskforce on WPS in order to kickstart their implementation.​

 

Hosting a special event on human trafficking within the framework of the WPS agenda and as part of Belgium’s tenure in the UN Security Council.

Update 29 January 2020: On October 25th 2019, Belgium organized an Arria-formula meeting in the Security Council on the topic of integrating the Women, Peace and Security agenda and the trafficking agenda, with a briefing by the Special Rapporteur on the fight against Trafficking, Mrs. Maria Grazia Giammarinaro. The Members of the Security Council recognized the need to better evaluate the disproportionate impact of trafficking on women in conflict and post-conflict situations, as well as the need to collect data to improve responses. Several Council Members recognized trafficking as a form of sexual and gender-based violence and a tactic of war.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

National Action Plan: BiH to revise and improve existing M&E plan to facilitate data collection, reporting and evaluation that will inform the development of the new NAP on UNSCR 1325.

Update 29 January 2020M&E plan was revised. Based on these revisions, new formats for annual planning and reporting were developed.

 

To ensure effective implementation, BiH will organize coordination meetings of institutions represented in NAP, including the Coordination Group of Non- Governmental Organizations in order to improve the model of mutual coordination, cooperation, and communication lines.

Update 29 January 2020: Two meetings with NGOs organized (in May and Sep) with the aim to discuss mutual cooperation and preparation for presentation of the 6th periodic CEDAW/SHADOW Report.

 

At the regional level, BiH will organize thematic meetings of Regional Coordination Board to exchange practices in implementation of national and local action plans on UNSCR 1325 and will support the revision of the Regional Action Plan with a focus on common priorities, especially in the context of new security threats and challenges (e.g. different roles and needs of women and men in natural disasters, migration crisis and the prevention of violent extremism).

Update 29 January 2020: Regional Action Plan (2019-2023) revised with additional new strategic program: “Gender mainstreaming in the context of newsecurity threats and challenges (natural disasters, violent extremism and terrorism, migrant/refugee crisis)”.

 

BiH will develop a roadmap which defines specific forms of cooperation between the EU and the GEA BiH/MHRR BiH in the framework of the G7 partnership for peace and security support through the implementation of 1325.

Update 29 January 2020: “EU-Bosnia and Herzegovina G7/WPS Partnership Roadmap” was developed in consultations with BiH Coordination Board on NAP UNSCR 1325 and Delegation of EU in BiH. It defined goals, targets, concrete actions, deadlines, responsibilities and type of EC and IC support.

 

BiH commits to participating regularly at the meeting of the Global Focal Points Network on Women, Peace and Security.

Update 29 January 2020: The GEA BiH was not able to participate in the WPS Focal Points Network side event which took place on the margins of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly in Sep 2019. The GEA communicated and sent an update on the implementation of WPS in BiH which was presented by the Representative of the Permanent Mission of BiH to the UN.

 

Peacekeeping: The Ministry of Security of BiH will organize a conference on "Participation of Women in Peace Support Operations".

Update 29 January 2020: The conference was organized with the aim to encourage more women members of the police and armed forces to participate in peace support operations.

 

Financial commitments: Launching the FIGAP II Program - Financial Instrument for Implementation of the Gender Action Plan in BiH (2018-2021). One of the priorities is "Gender and Security" and funds are also planned to support the implementation of UNSCR 1325. Also committing allocation of grants to non-governmental organizations from FIGAP II funds for projects supporting implementation of NAP UNSCR 1325 in BiH, including to support safe houses for victims of gender-based violence.

Update 29 January 2020: Implementation of FIGAP II program is ongoing. Grants allocated to ten (10) NGOs, out of which six (6) are directly related to support implementation of NAP UNSCR 1325 in BiH.​

 

Security Sector: BiH commits the continuation of the work on harmonization of regulations, policies, programmes and internal procedures in the defense and security sector institutions of in BiH with the Law on Gender Equality in BiH.

Will organize thematic events for on gender issues in defense and security in BiH and will continue the active participation of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the WPS Chiefs of Defense Staff global network.

Update 29 January 2020:

One strategic document in the BiH Ministry of Security and eight bylaws in the BiH Ministry of Defense harmonized with Law on Gender Equality in BiH.

The first conference of the WPS CHODs Network organized in BiH (Sarajevo). The Action plan on implementation of the Conference conclusions was developed and started in July 2019.

 

Gender Equality: Presentation of the Sixth Periodic CEDAW Report of BiH that contains information on the implementation of the BiH NAP on UNSCR 1325.

Update 29 January 2020: Presentation before the CEDAW Committee completed and followed by Concluding observations for BiH, received from the Committee, with set of recommendations related to implementation of WPS agenda in BiH.

Brazil

National Action Plan: Brazil commits to publicizing and disseminate the Brazilian National Action Plan (NAP) on WPS, which was renewed for an additional period of 4 years in March 2019. It commits to support the monitoring of voluntary, non-binding indicators and targets for activities within the newly revised NAP and ensure the NAP website is updated on a regular basis (4 times a year).

Brazil pledges to host an international seminar of Women, Peace and Security by October 2020.

Bulgaria

National Action Plan: Bulgaria commits to adopting its National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security with specific targets, indicators, budgets and ensure meaningful involvement of civil society in the development and implementation process.

Relief and Recovery: Commits to holding the inaugural meeting of the National Committee on International Humanitarian Law.

Sexual violence in conflict: Will adopt an Action Plan to implement Bulgaria’scommitments on the Call to Action on Protection against Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies.

Gender Equality: Bulgaria will submit its Eighth Periodic Report of Bulgaria on the Implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). And will also undertake a final evaluation in October 2020 of the National Action Plan on the implementation of the National Strategy for Promoting the Equality between Women and Men (2016-2020) to inform the development of the new national strategy.

Canada

National Action Plan: Canada will deepen implementation of the WPS agenda domestically by developing a new implementation plan to address the insecurity of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people in Canada as part of Canada`s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.

Update 29 January 2020: In progress. Publication delayed due to election, estimated date of publication end of April 2020.​

 

Canada also commits to co-chair the WPS Focal Points Network in 2020 with Uruguay and to follow-up on the recommendations made by participants at the meeting of the Network in Namibia in April 2019.

Update 29 January 2020: As preparation for the 2020 co-chair year, on 16-17 December 2019 Canada and Uruguay held a two-day regional workshop inMontevideo on “Opportunities for the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in the Americas.” More than 100 participants from governments, civil society, Indigenous peoples, the UN, police and military helped create greater regional awareness of the applicability of the women, peace and security agenda to current peace and security challenges in the hemisphere. Results from the workshop will support the global WPS Focal Points Meetings Canada and Uruguay will host in May 2020 in Ottawa and at the UNGA High-Level Meeting in New York in September 2020.

 

Peacekeeping: Canada commits that it will strive to meet the annual targets set by the Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy in its deployment of military and police peacekeepers to UN Missions.

Update 29 January 2020: Canada values the targets set in the Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy, and will continue to strive to meet the annual targets. To date, Canada has exceeded the targets set out in the Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy in our deployments.

 

Canada, together with Norway, commits to make publicly and freely available a tool to identify and formulate strategies to address gender-specific barriers within Member States’ military and police organizations. Canada also commits to conduct a barrier assessment for its own armed forces to improve its efforts to reach the Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy targets.

Update 29 January 2020: In progress. Will be released in 2020 when ready, as indicated.

 

Security Sector: Canada commits to take concrete measures to increase the membership and strengthen the role of the WPS Chief of Defence Staff Network to accelerate the integration of the WPS agenda into national armed forces, as it becomes chair of the Network in July 2019. The Network was launched by Canada, the UK and Bangladesh in 2017 to drive transformative cultural and institutional change within national armed forces.

Update 29 January 2020: Since taking over as Chair in July 2019, Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff General Vance has sent around 30 letters of invitation soliciting countries to join the Network, which has since grown to 48 members. Canada is currently drafting a Network Charter toformalize the Network’s mission, and is hopeful that it can be in place by October 2020.​

 

Participation: Canada commits to increasing its efforts to enhance women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in peace negotiations. This will include efforts committed to by the G7 Foreign Ministers on April 5, 2019. Canada is supporting women’s participation in the peace processes in Afghanistan, the Koreas, Syria and South Sudan, and in Colombia in the implementation of the peace agreement.

Update 29 January 2020: Canada’s support to these peace negotiations is ongoing.​

 

Canada also supports women’s participation in disarmament and strives to ensure that interventions are gender-responsive. Canada commits to increasing support to research and capacity-building to ensure that women have a voice in mine action, including through the establishment of a global network of gender focal points as a community of practice in mine action.

Update 29 January 2020: 

Through its support for the Gender and Mine Action Program (GMAP) at the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), Canada has achieved the following results so far in fiscal year 2019-20:

Through a working group on Victim Assistance and Mine Risk Education, GMAP trained 16 gender focal points (14 women and 2 men) from 19 different institutions to effectively incorporate gender and diversity in mine action;

As a result of a training course delivered in Lebanon between 28 September and 3 October 2019, GICHD successfully trained 11 women and 3 men as Gender Focal Points; and

GMAP conducted a Gender and Diversity Assessment of the Cambodian Mine Authority in June 2019 to assess the integration of gender considerations in ongoing activities. As part of this assessment, 6 women and 15 men were interviewed.

 

Financial commitments: Canada pledges to support empowering local women to be a force for crisis response and lasting peace through grants to women’s organization in fragile and conflict-affected countries. Canada will increase our support to the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund with an additional CAD 1.5 million and to the UNDP N-Peace Small Grants in Asia with an additional CAD 500,000.

Update 29 January 2020: Increased funding for the WPHF and UNDP was approved and disbursed in March 2019. Canada remains an active member of the WPHF funding board.​

 

Canada commits to advocating for the inclusion of sexual and gender-based violence and child protection investigators as part of the core teams of all UN investigative mechanisms such as Commissions of Inquiry and Fact-Finding Missions. To help bridge the gap in experts, Canada is supporting the deployment of experts through UN Women and commits to increase its support with an additional contribution of CAD 6 million.

Update 29 January 2020: Canada continues to raise this at relevant international fora and with key partners such as the OHCHR. Canada increased its commitment with UN Women to deploy investigators in March 2019 by $6M and will cover deployments until September 2021.

 

Canada also commits to combatting impunity for international crimes and grave violations of human rights, including sexual and gender-based violence crimes, committed during armed conflicts by strengthening the justice systems of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, including by improving the ability of Burundian and Congolese human rights defenders and civil society organizations to document international crimes and serious human rights violations and strengthening the capacity of Congolese officials to investigate and prosecute these crimes and pledging CAD 600,000 to this effort.

Update 29 January 2020: Completed. By enabling local civil society, lawyers and prosecutors to effectively document, prosecute and litigate international crimes according to international standards and best practices, TRIAL has been able to assist more than 800 victims of serious conflict-related violations such as sexual and gender-based violence, acts of torture, extrajudicial executions and arbitrary detention. TRIAL's initiative directly contributed not only to meeting the particular needs of victims, most of whom are women and girls, but also to protecting their material, physical and mental well-being through the provision of free legal support and referrals to other technical services according to their needs.​

 

Canada will increase our support to the prevention of sexual violence through the engagement of boys and girls to reduce the cycle of violence in Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan through an additional CAD 1.7 million.

Update 29 January 2020: Ongoing. Canada continues to support this program which has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of sexual assaults and teenage pregnancies. It also is enhancing positive masculinities and encouraging boys and young men to become agents of change in their communities.​

 

Canada commits to keep looking for ways to support local women’s organizations and is in the process of building new and unique partnerships with the philanthropic community, the private sector and civil society to mobilize unprecedented levels of investments in support of gender equality and the rights of girls and women in developing countries, including fragile and conflict-affected countries. Canada has committed up to $300 million to this partnership.

Update 29 January 2020: Our most recent single most important initiative to reach local grassroots organizations is the Equality Fund (EF). In June 2019, on the margins of the Women Deliver conference, Canada announced it would contribute USD300 million towards the establishment of the EF, which is designed to be independent of the Government of Canada. A contribution agreement with the EF was signed in August 2019 and to date, USD4m of the USD300 million Government of Canada commitment has been disbursed.​

 

Sexual Violence in Conflict: As Lead of the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies for 2019-2020, Canada commits to strengthening the link with the women, peace, and security agenda through the development of the next multi-year road map, including through the better integration of considerations around gender equality, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, and engagement with local and women’s organizations.

Update 29 January 2020: Canada is working with the Women’s Refugee Commission to revise the strategic guidance document for the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies – the Road Map – and has undertaken multiple in person and online consultations with the diverse 85 organization membership. Canada is on track to deliver on this commitment by September 2020.​

 

Peacebuilding Commission: Canada is seeking election as Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) in 2020. As Chair of the PBC, Canada willstrengthen efforts to implement the PBC’s Gender Strategy by systematically mainstreaming a gender perspective in all the PBC’s country-specific, regional, and thematic work.

Update 29 January 2020: Canada has been nominated by its regional group and will likely formally become Chair on Wednesday January 29.

Chile

National Action Plan: Chile commits to launch its Third National Action Plan on the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325. This Plan will be aligned with the recommendations of the Secretary General and it will extend its scope of action to situations of natural disasters and humanitarian aid.

Chile will ensure the development process of the Third NAP will be participatory and be informed by the participation of wide range of stakeholders including civil society. Will hold a consultation meeting in August 2019.

Croatia

National Action Plan: Croatia commits to adopting its second NAP for the five- year period 2019-2023, covering both domestic and international affairs and to incorporate goals related to a gender-sensitive approach in migration, terrorism and managing natural or technological disasters.

Update 29 January 2020: The Action Plan for the period 2019-2023 was adopted by the Government of Croatia in August 2019.​

 

Peacekeeping: Croatia will continue to host and finance pre-deployment trainings for female police officers from all over in UN missions and operations (UN Police Officers Course – UNPOC) with a view to strengthening the role of women in peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

Update 29 January 2020: The fifth UN Police Officers Course was held on May 6-18, 2019 in Croatia for 10 police officers from Ukraine, Colombia, Mali, Macedonia and Kosovo.

 

Croatia is committed to ensuring that gender is integrated into police and military training, and in pre-deployment training of civilian and military personnel, with special focus on prevention and response to sexual violence, and zero tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, in line with the Secretary General’s Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Voluntary Compact.

Update 29 January 2020: Gender issues have been integrated into police / military education and training, including through specific measures under the Action Plan, with a particular focus on combatting sexual violence in conflicts and the SEA (ongoing).​

 

Financial commitments: Croatia pledges to finance development projects focusing on women’s economic empowerment in Syria and/or neighboring countries in the amount of up to EUR 200,000 (as a part of its pledge at the 2016 Donor Conference for Syria).

Update 29 January 2020: In December 2019, Croatia contributed USD202,000 to UN Women for the implementation of the "Building women's resilience by promoting economic empowerment in Lebanon: Supporting Syrian refugees and nationals to respond to the impact of the Syrian crisis" project, building women's resilience through their economic empowerment. The project would directly help 110 beneficiaries of the program (women and girls, Syrian refugees and vulnerable groups of Lebanese nationals), by gaining new ICT skills, significantly increasing their employment opportunities. The development-peace-humanitarian nexus is particularly important to us.​

Cyprus

National Action Plan: Cyprus commits to adopting its first National Action Plan on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.

Participation: Cyprus will ensure that a gender dimension is embedded in national legislation prepared within the framework of the Cyprus peace process, through the support of the bicommunal Technical Committee on Gender (a track II mechanism in the Cyprus peace process). The objective is to meaningfully ensure women’s participation in the Cyprus Peace Process through the Network of Women Mediators and civil society.

Czech Republic

National Action Plan: Czech Republic commits to undertaking a review of the implementation of the current National Action Plan (2017-2020). The results will be used to inform the process of developing the National Action Plan 2020-2025. The revised Czech National Action Plan 2020-2025 will include specific targets and indicators and will ensure meaningful participation of key stakeholders including civil society and academics in the development process.

Denmark

National Action Plan: Denmark commits to revising and updating its National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, which will also be informed by the evaluation the current National Action.

Update 29 January 2020: Denmark is working on a new NAP this year. The draft is being finalized, and will be ready for adoption by the end of the year.

The development of the new NAP is based on the evaluation of the previous NAP implementation. One of the evaluation findings related to the stakeholders, and the fact that committed individuals rather than organized government structures had facilitated implementation. A key lesson learned was therefore to facilitate a broad-base commitment within government structures, including by getting the security sector more involved and by scaling up engagement on WPS.​

 

Financial commitments: Denmark pledges DKK 25 million in the support of the work of the African Union Commission to promote the role of women in peace and security across the continent.

Update 29 January 2020: DKK 25M were provided to AUC in support of the African Peace and Security Architecture, targeting the office of the SE on WPS (Denmark).

Democratic Republic of the Congo

National Action Plan: DRC commits to engaging in advocacy with the Council of Ministers for the implementation of its second NAP, prioritizing resource mobilization for its implementation, and reinforcing coordination and implementation structures (early warning, mediation, monitoring and evaluation) on 1325 in all the provinces in DRC.

Mediation: DRC pledges to support the African Women Leadership Network (AWLN), specifically in undertaking solidarity visits in provinces with IDPs and refugees (Kasais, Kivus, Ituri, Tanganyika, Maidombe), in addition to undertaking capacity-building of the provincial cells of the “femmes leaders” on mediation and social cohesion.

Participation: Requiring the significant participation of women in the organization of the community dialogues and provincial forums in provinces with emerging conflicts, such as Yumbi in Mayi Ndombe, Beni and Butembo in North Kivu, and others.

Security Sector: Will undertake capacity-building of uniformed personnel (Military and Police) on DRC’s commitments to the WPS agenda

Gender Equality: Will ensure the dissemination of laws and policies on gender equality and women’s rights (family code, parity law, national action plan on 1325 and laws on children’s protection law, HIV/AIDS victims protection, and sexual violence).

Ecuador

National Action Plan: Ecuador commits to developing its first National Action Plan on the implementation of the UNSC resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.

Egypt

National Action Plan: Egypt commits to developing and adopting its first National Action Plan on the implementation of UNSC resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security by March 2020.

Ethiopia

National Action Plan: Ethiopia commits to developing and adopting its first National Action Plan on the implementation of UNSC resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security by August 2020.

Estonia

National Action Plan: Estonia commits to preparing its third National Action Plan on the implementation of UNSCR 1325 (2020-2024). The revised National Action Plan will cover Estonia’s contribution to keeping the WPS agenda in focus in international for and actions to increase empowerment of women and girls in conflict and post- conflict situations by development and humanitarian contributions. The Action Plan will be prepared in close cooperation with the civil society organizations and other relevant national stakeholders active on the WPS agenda.

Financial commitments: Pledges to financially support the Special Representative of Sexual Violence in Conflict and team of Expert on Rule of Law.

Finland

Participation: Finland emphasizes the importance of partnerships and cooperation between governments, international organizations, civil society and other actors in advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda. As part of its efforts to promote the WPS agenda at the international level and in bilateral relations, Finland has supported countries in preparing and implementing their National Action Plans. As part of this support, Finland commits to undertaking a study to identify challenges and obstacles towomen’s meaningful participation in peace processes with the aim to strengthen the link between practical work in the field and research-basedconflict analysis on women’s participation.

Update 29 January 2020

Identifying challenges and obstacles to women’s meaningful participation in peace processes is ongoing and is taking place in different conflict countries and supported by different responsible actors implementing Finland’s NAP, such CMI, FELM andFinnChurchaid. Results are disseminated in local and global fora. Compiling best practices and analyzing results in different contexts is underway.

Finland is implementing its third NAP.

We have been emphasizing the importance of partnerships, with governments and civil society in international and bilateral efforts to support countries in preparing and implementing NAPs.

Study commitment: This compilation of best practices is currently underway (so no major updates here as yet).

 

Sexual violence in conflict: Finland together with Norway commit to deploying a police team to UNMISS with the aim strengthening capacity of local police in prevention, response, prosecution of conflict-related sexual violence.

Update 29 January 2020: The UNMISS SPT SGBV team is deployed in Sudan.

 

Financial commitments: Pledges to financially contribute EUR 3.9 million toUN Women’s Regional Women, Peace and Security Project phase two (2019- 2021) in the MENA region.

Update 29 January 2020: The project is ongoing with planned financial support from Finland.

 

Finland will continue to finance OSCE to support the implementation of WPS agenda in the OSCE region, with EUR 50,000 Euros during 2019-20, building on the work done between 2016 and 2017.

Update 29 January 2020: Finland has allocated financial support of 50,000 EUR to “OSCE Support to Women, Peace and Security Agenda” Project in 2019. In addition, Finland has allocated 63,000 EUR for the Project “Sustaining the OSCE Mediation Support Capacity” in 2020.

 

Finland supports efforts to fight impunity for the most serious international crimes, especially SGBV. As a result, Finland has been supporting the ICC Trust Fund for Victims and participates in the interventions financed by the fund. Finland is financially supporting through multi-year funding, targeting support to SGBV victims in Sub-Saharan Africa (2017-2021) with EUR 800,000 (EUR 200,000 annually).

Update 29 January 2020: Finland’s financial support has been allocated as pledged.

 

Finland pledges to support the implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty by supporting UNSCAR with a special focus on women, including young women, with a total funding of EUR 1 million.

Update 29 January 2020: Finland’s financial support has been allocated as pledged.

 

Mediation: Together with Norway, Finland supports annual Gender and Inclusive Mediation seminars that are implemented in partnership with Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), the United Nations Department of Political Affairs and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). CMI is a significant partner for Finland in WPS.

Update 29 January 2020:  The latest seminar took place in Helsinki in November 2019. Next seminar is planned for 2020.​

Georgia

National Action Plans: Georgia commits to localization of the National Action Plan of Georgia on 1325 to local municipalities level, in addition to monitoring and analyzing achievements and challenges of the NAP and ensuring the dissemination of the findings with all stakeholders.

Georgia commits to integrating the goals and objectives of 1325 in the national policies and sectoral strategies of state institutions, including ensuring that the integration of IDPs and conflict-affected women’s needs,priorities and recommendations are reflected in the official negotiation processes and the development and implementation of relevant policies.

Update 29 January 2020:

The Ministry of Defense has prepared a new Gender Equality Strategy and a two-year Action Plan to be adopted in the first quarter of 2020.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has three in-house trainers on gender equality and the WPS-agenda, who with the support of UN Women and the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations have conducted training for more than 60 staff members. In-house trainers aim at conducting cascade training for several MIA structural units, including the Department of Human Rights Protection and Investigation Quality Monitoring, the Border Police, the Patrol and Criminal Police, and the Special Tasks Department operating in the regions of Georgia.

The Ministry of Defense of Georgia as the lead institution on the UNSCR 1325 in the country takes continued efforts to integrate gender perspectives in the institutional development and operational capacity building of the Georgian Armed Forces.

The Ministry of Defense of Georgia together with DCAF and with partnership of UK and Spanish MoDs implemented Women, Peace and Security Organizational Assessment project, financially supported by the NATO SPS program. The project was designed to improve gender balance and reduce barriers to women within the Georgian Armed Forces, contributed to Georgia’s strategic objectives to implement the UNSCR 1325 and related resolutions. Moreover, it aimed to build MoD capacity to design, develop and execute gender related organizational climate studies and elaborate recommendations.

The Georgian delegation in the Geneva International Discussions (GID) and the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms (IPRMs) actively raises all issues related to the needs and priorities of women IDPs and conflict-affected women within each round of the GID. The issues are highlighted with the co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussions (EU, UN, OSCE), as well as with other international organizations and partner countries to properly reflect the needs and priorities of women IDPs and conflict-affected women in peaceful conflict resolution process.

In order to increase the expertise of public servants dealing with conflict-related issues, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia together with UN Women has started to establish the training course in the Levan Mikeladze Diplomatic Training and Research Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia.

Georgian participants of the GID and the IPRMs meet regularly with the representatives of the civil society, including NGOs,women’s rights defenders, as well as with the women IDPs and conflict affected women in order to ensure that the needs and priorities of women IDPs and conflict-affected women are integrated in the planning of the peace process and raised at the negotiation formats, particularly at the GID and the IPRMs.

The mental health System Development Strategy is being updated to address the needs of displaced and conflict-affected populations, especially women and girls. Once the strategy project is completed, they will be actively involved in the review and implementation processes.

 

Participation: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and Office of the State Minister of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civil Equity (SMR) will continueregular dialogues with women’s organizations around the Geneva International Discussions (GID) on the conflict in Georgia and the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms (IPRMs) with the aim of havingwomen’s participation in GID to reach parity (50 percent).

Security Sector: Georgia commits to increasing the capacity of the security sector, Specialized Units, Special Tasks Department, peacekeeping personnel, law enforcement and Legal Aid Service employees on preventing, and responding to SGBV, including in conflict and post-conflict situations, and commits to institutionalizing Gender Advisers throughout the Ministry of Defense. As part of efforts to address SEA, the Ministry Internal Affairs is committed to introduce a formal complaint mechanism for sexual harassment.

Update 29 January 2020: Training on gender perspectives, the UNSCR 1325 and following resolutions are part of pre-deployment training for peacekeepers. About 1600 military service men and women were trained in 2019. Gender and domestic violence issues are also subject to PTDS sessions held by the MoD Psychologist post deployment.

In 2019, Gender Advisors Institutionalization process has been completed at the Ministry of Defense of Georgia. On brigade level, military appointees on the position of G1 and S1 automatically fulfill gender advisors’ functions.

Special training curriculum for gender advisors has been created, which itself became the mandatory for the abovementioned positions at the Ministry of Defense of Georgia. Also, special MOC was defined for gender advisors by the decree of Chief of Defense of Georgian Defense Forces.

In 2020, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) will set up internal complaints mechanism on sexual harassment. In order to achieve this goal, MIA with the support of UN Women and in cooperation with the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia, conductedinformation session on Sexual Harassment complaints mechanisms. In addition, MIA relevant staff participated in the training on the topic of investigation of sexual harassment cases using a victim and survivor centered approach.

Also, in 2019, MIA participated in the state-wide awareness- raising campaign on sexual harassment conducted within the 16- days of activism against gender-based violence.

Germany

Financial commitments: Germany commits to increasing the participation of uniformed women in peacekeeping through a financial contribution of EUR 2 million Euros to the Elsie Trust Fund.

Update 29 January 2020: Complete, payment made in December 2019.

 

Germany will support survivors of sexual and gender-based violence by contributing EUR 900,000 to the Dr. Dennis Mukwege Initiative/Foundation for survivors of sexual violence and support the Special Appeal on Strengthening the Response to Sexual Violence by the International Committee of the Red Cross with a total of EUR 2 million.

Update 29 January 2020: In progress, partly complete.

EUR200,000 submitted to Mukwege Fund in December 2019, additional EUR200,000 allocated for 2020.

EUR4,000,000 Mio submitted to ICRC. (exceeds commitment)

New government strategies on engagement in crisis situations (rule of law, SSR, etc.) - they all have WPS as a key cross-cutting issue. (new commitment)

 

Germany pledges to support 5 WPS positions at United Nations Volunteers (UNV) in conflict-affected countries and one gender officer at the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen (OSEGY).

Update 29 January 2020: Complete, all positions were created.

 

Sexual violence in conflict: Commits to supporting research and pilot interventions on engaging Rohingya male survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, which will contribute to developing approaches to address sexual violence against men and boys in situations of displacement and emergencies.

Update 29 January 2020: In progress, multi-year project (until 2020).

 

Germany will support the documentation of crimes committed against Yezidi and other Iraqi women.

Update 29 January 2020: In progress, multi-year project (until 2022).

 

Participation: Support inclusion and participation of women in national dialogues, peace processes and reconstruction in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Libya through advocacy, research, and training.

Update 29 January 2020: In progress, three separate multi-year projects (until 2022).

 

Peacekeeping: Germany commits to promoting the participation of female police officers in peacekeeping missions through dedicated advocacy, in addition to supporting annual training for police personnel being deployed on peacekeeping missions on Women, Peace and Security, Sexual and Gender Based Violence and Inclusive Mediation.

Update 29 January 2020

Several events planned for October 2020.

We have committed to having annual training seminars for our own military and police who will be deployed. Training workshops happened last year and will happen this year too.

Greece

National Action Plan: Greece commits to developing and adopting its first National Action Plan on the implementation of UNSC resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, which will serve as a practical and robust policy implementation tool, consisting of the main national WPS priorities, which will be further supported by specific results-oriented and targeted actions. The strategic orientation of the NAP will be further guided and facilitated by the use of specific indicators and sex-disaggregated data.

Gender Equality: Within in the framework of the UN Human Rights Mechanisms, Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures, Greece will continue to regularly report, on the basis of their recommendations, on national developments regarding gender equality and women empowerment, including on issues related to the Women Peace and Security agenda.

Human Rights: Greece will continue to coherently address issues related to gender equality and women empowerment, including those covered by the Women Peace and Security agenda, within the UN human rights forums, namely, but not limited to, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, the Human Rights Council as well as the ECOSOC Commission on the Status of Women. Furthermore, Greece will continue to explore ways to coherently link the gender perspective with its thematic human rights priorities, like it did in the case of its national initiative, the UNGA Resolution 72/175 on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, which incorporates a gender sensitive approach to the issue.

Guatemala

National Action Plan: Guatemala commits to prioritizing implementation of existing its NAP on 1325 at the local and national level and will use this as a framework to strengthen public institutions and national legislation to advance the rights of women, their full participation in decision-making at all levels and their access to justice through concerted interventions.

Update 29 January 2020

Guatemala has made progress developing seminars on implementation of UNSCR 1325 across different departments within its government.

Funding is a challenge, especially with Guatemala’s new government assessing its new priorities and deciding in what areas they will invest.

Guatemala raised the importance of addressing the linkages between UNSCR 1325 and disarmament, as we see a rise in militarization worldwide.

 

Youth Engagement: Commits to support leadership training and the inclusion of women in the public sphere through the Leadership School for young women and the permanent voluntary participation program called "School of Culture of Peace".

Update 29 January 2020: Guatemala has established a leadership school for women, and its ministry of education has established specific educational programs for children, meant to educate youth on the meaning and purpose of UNSCR 1325 through creative and artistic activities, like drawing cartoons.​

Iceland

Capacity Building: Iceland commits to fund the participation in the United Nations University Gender Equality Studies and Training Programme of at least 4 women yearly from conflict zones or post-conflict zones who work in the field of women, peace and security.

Update 29 January 2020: In 2019 Iceland funded the participation of a total of nine women from conflict or post-conflict zones to the United Nations University Gender Equality Studies and Training Programme (GEST). Three women from Mozambique participated through Iceland’s collaboration with UN Women on Women, Peace and Security. Three women from Palestine, two from Kosovo and one from Afghanistan all work on WPS in one way or the other.

 

Participation: Increase meaningful participation of women in peace and reconstruction and commit to ensuring women are equally represented with a target of no less than 40 percent before 2020.

Update 29 January 2020: The Icelandic Crisis Response Unit currently seconds 14,5 positions, of which five are occupied by women working specifically on Women, Peace and Security in Turkey and Mozambique. Two men are seconded to UNRWA in Jordan where they work generally on protection, but without a specific focus on WPS. Women are still underrepresented in Iceland’s NATO deployments, where women are 32% of deployed personnel.

 

National legislation: Raising awareness of UNSCR 1325 among Icelandic policymakers and those working on security and humanitarian issues on the field, including mainstreaming 1325 in policies and strategies such as development cooperation, humanitarian assistance, security and defence.

Update 29 January 2020: Although Women, Peace and Security has in the past belonged administratively within the Directorate of International and Security Affairs of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, a restructuring at the beginning of 2020 now sees this portfolio within a new Directorate for International Affairs and Development Cooperation. The WPS agenda is mainstreamed into the humanitarian affairs and development cooperation policy through a direct reference to Iceland’s current National Action Plan on WPS. Additionally, a portion of Iceland’s humanitarian funding is earmarked for WPS. Awareness raising of UNSCR 1325 is done in collaboration with UN Women in Iceland, based on a signed agreement between the parties and established practice.

Financial commitments: Support bilateral and multilateral funding and programmes aimed at peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction that contribute to security and assistance for women in conflict zones. This includes a 4-year project with the Government of Mozambique in partnership with UN Women and Norway and another 4-year programme with UN Women’s Regional office in Turkey to create an enabling environment for refugee women to lead and benefit in of refugee response, peace and security, migration, DRR and humanitarian action.

Update 29 January 2020: Iceland has continued its multi-year support to the two above mentioned programmes. Additionally, Iceland provided a one-off contribution of USD850,000 to a project on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Yemen (in accordance with a pledge by the Government of Iceland made in Oslo last Spring). We have also continued our long-standing contribution to two Civil Society Organisations in Palestine who i.a. provide support to women suffering domestic abuse and aid their empowerment. On last year’s International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Iceland pledged to support the ICRC’s special appeal tocombat sexual violence in armed conflict. Previously Iceland signed a multi-year framework agreement with the Red Cross in Iceland to support its humanitarian work, with a special emphasis on gender equality and women’s rights.

Indonesia

Peacekeeping: Indonesia commits to increasing women’s participation in UN peacekeeping and police and to strengthen the protection system of women and children in conflict. As part of this effort, Indonesia will co-host with ICRC a Regional High-level Conference themed "Preparing Modern Armed Forces for Peacekeeping Operations in the 21st Century" in June 2019.

Update 29 January 2020: Indonesia hosted the conference "Preparing Modern Armed Forces for Peacekeeping Operations in the 21st Century" on 25-27 June 2019.

 

Countering Violent Extremism: Commits to integrating the WPS agenda in efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism and enhance national capacities and communities on women's engagement as agents of peace and tolerance.

Update 29 January 2020: Indonesia increased the number of women peacekeepers by 60 % (from 77 to 123).

 

Capacity-building: Indonesia will organize a regional training of young female diplomats from ASEAN region on WPS as peace negotiators and moderators.

Update 29 January 2020: A regional training for female diplomats had been organized in April 2019.

Ireland

National Action Plan: Ireland commits to prioritizing the implementation of its NAP by taking a whole of government approach and improve the coordination of domestic dimension of the NAP. This includes sharing lessons with other Member States on monitoring and evaluation and development process.

Update 29 January 2020: We have launched our third National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, which set new standards for inclusive approaches through our consultations with migrant and refugee women living in Ireland from conflict affected countries. We listened to their voices and domestic commitments for these women in our National Action Plan now include language classes, supporting their creative outlets, gender sensitive interpretation and ensuring consistent psycho-social services. There are now 8 Irish government departments and agencies implementing WPS. 

Ireland has set up an Oversight Group for the third National Action Plan which is made up of 50% government and 50% civil society.

Ireland shared lessons on NAPs and Monitoring & Evaluation expertise with the Netherlands, Liberia, Lithuania, Malta, and Bulgaria. Ireland supported the work of Dr Debbie Donnelly to provide technical expertise for the development of Indicators for the EU Action Plan on WPS.

 

Ireland’s work across the participation pillar of the WPS Agenda will include a focus on empowering young people, in particular young women and girls. This will incorporate the need for greater investments in the capacity, agency and leadership of young people and in intergenerational dialogue.

Update 29 January 2020: In 2019, EUR197,000 was provided to our peacebuilding partner, Interpeace, to support follow up activities to The Missing Peace report and to support youth engagement in peacebuilding in Burkina Faso. The Missing Peace programme is rooted in the symbiotic relationship between the YPS and WPS agendas. This entails the prioritization of the lived experiences of young women, as well as attention to the issues of masculinity in relation to peace, and conflict as part of the YPS implementation agenda. It also entails an assertion of the importance of youth and generational issues within the WPS agenda and relies on reciprocal learning between these two spheres of policy, practice and scholarship. This will be enhanced through a strategic engagement with UN Women to ensure the reciprocal relationship between these two interrelated policy spheres. The Burkina Faso project contributes to the WPS agenda by making visible and enhancing young women’s influence and meaningful participation in peacebuilding processes and fostering the inclusion of a gender perspective in questions regarding peace and security. It recognizes the diverse ways women and girls, men and boys, are affected by conflict, and their unique contribution to peace. The programme stimulates conversation on UNSCR 1325 and Burkina Faso’s National Action Plan for the Implementation of Resolutions 1325 and 1820, particularly regarding how young women can use UNSCR 1325/NAP as tools for advocating a greater role for themselves in peace and security processes.

Ireland also provided EUR25,000 to an OSCE project on Youth, Peace and Security. This funding contributes to Phase 2 of a project designed to meaningfully integrate youth perspectives into OSCE security debates. Strengthening the OSCEs ability to promote peace, stability and comprehensive security. The programme contributes to the WPS agenda by making visible andenhancing young women’s influence and meaningful participation in peacebuilding processes and fostering the inclusion of a gender perspective in questions regarding peace and security. It recognizes the diverse ways women and girls, men and boys, are affected by conflict, and their unique contribution to peace. Ireland’s work across the participation pillar of the WPS Agenda will include a focus on empowering young people in particular young women and girls. This will incorporate the need for greater investments in the capacity, agency and leadership of young people and of intergenerational dialogue.

In 2019, Plan Ireland received €3,304,608 to focus on improving access to education for children, particularly for girls, those affected by conflict and those with disabilities. Funding is allocated to projects in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Northern Cameroon, Jordan, Niger and the Central African Republic (CAR). Plan is also involved in promoting the participation of girls in political advocacy, including girls’ engagement with legislators and political leaders during International Day of the Girl.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) was launched at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 with the aim of mobilising political support and financing for education in emergencies, facilitating joint humanitarian and development planning and responses, and improving accountability. By the end of 2018 ECW has supported education services for 1 million children and young people affected by conflict and other crises in 19 countries and facilitated joint multi-annual education response plans for protracted crises situations in three countries. Ireland has pledged EUR6 million for 2019-2021.

Ireland is a significant funder to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) with EUR25 million pledged for 2018-2020. At a global level we view the GPE as complementing our country level work and broadening our reach, especially now with the strong GPE focus on fragile states, girls education and learning outcomes.

In 2019, Plan Ireland received EUR3,304,608 to focus on improving access to education for children, particularly for girls, those affected by conflict and those with disabilities. Funding is allocated to projects in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Northern Cameroon, Jordan, Niger and the Central African Republic (CAR). Plan is also involved in promoting the participation of girls in political advocacy, including girls’ engagement with legislators and political leaders during International Day of the Girl.

Plan Ireland receives both long-term development and humanitarian funding from Irish Aid, and these programmes include the empowerment of girls in several conflict-prone countries. In 2019, Plan received €3,304,608 in Irish Aid funding – this included EUR 1,332, 421 under the Programme Grant, EUR1,478,722 under the Humanitarian Programme Plan, and EUR493,465 under the Emergency Response Fund Scheme. The programmes are focused on improving access to education for children, particularly for girls, those affected by conflict and those with disabilities. Funding is allocated to projects in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Northern Cameroon, Jordan, Niger and the Central African Republic (CAR). Plan is also involved in promoting the participation of girls in political advocacy,including girls’ engagement with legislators and political leaders during International Day of the Girl.

Under PGII, Christain Aid International work on From Violence to Peace as one of the core themes. In 2018, work on From Violence to Peace addressed protection for HRDs (Colombia, Zimbabwe, Angola), early warning systems for conflict and violence, and improved mechanisms for conflict resolution at micro, meso and macro level (Sierra Leone, Angola, Zimbabwe, Central America). CAI will continue to prioritise their Violence to Peace lead role which supports the Global Strategy of the broader Christian Aid organisation.

 

Peacekeeping: Will develop, support and deliver a training course designed to enhance the capacity of Military Police (MP) from Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) to investigate and document Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) and Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA).

Update 29 January 2020: In November 2019, Ireland delivered training to an international contingent, consisting of military, police and NGO actors that would provide them with the necessary skills to investigate/ document/ monitor SGBV and SEA in overseas mission environments.

Attendees included military personnel and representatives from Ireland, UK, Germany, and NATO.

 

Financial Commitments: Ireland will increase funding directly related to Women, Peace and Security, including at least a 25% increase to GBV response and prevention in conflict affected and fragile states.

Update 29 January 2020:  In 2019, Ireland increased our support to the protection and empowerment of women and girls in conflict affected and fragile states by entering a new Strategic Partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), who have a longstanding history working to protection women and girls, disproportionately affected by humanitarian crises.

Through this partnership, we increased our funding to IRC by 36% (EUR1.1 to EUR1.5million) and extended from a 2- to 3-year multi-annual partnership allowing for longer-term planning and programing contributing towards transformative change.

 

Gender-based Violence: Support analysis and the development of practical guidelines to aid States Parties with the implementation of GBV obligations in the Arms Trade Treaty.

Update 29 January 2020: Ireland has continued to support research and practical measures designed to share good practices among States and promote theeffective implementation of ATT’s GBV provisions. We have continued to articulate the importance and value of States Parties to the ATT adopting as set of practical guidelines to aid in the implementation of the relevant GBV Treaty obligations.

In August 2019, Ireland organised a workshop for States and civil society during the preparatory process for the Fifth Conference of States Parties (CSP5) to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to strengthen knowledge and capacity on the ATT’s GBV provision and obligations. Ireland led on outreach on a joint statement at the CSP5, which secured the support of 46 States Parties for a CSP5 Decision that notes that ‘elements for a voluntary training guide... including best practices for risk assessment, should be developed with voluntary funding’.

Ireland also organised two side events to distil good practices to this effect at the CSP5 and at UNGA74 First Committee, and wewere active in developing ‘ideas for action’ as a co-chair of the International Gender Champions Disarmament Impact Group in Geneva.

In January 2020, Ireland held a workshop for ATT stakeholders in Dublin, at which next steps in the development of such practical guidelines were discussed, among other issues. This work builds on Ireland’s past efforts in this area, including the submission of a working paper on GBV risk assessments, and support for the development of informal GBV guidelines, during the CSP3 and CSP4 preparatory processes respectively.

Italy

National Action Plan: Italy commits to developing and adopting its Fourth National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, with the active engagement of civil society and academia in its development and implementation. In addition, Italy commits to supporting the meaningful participation of women from the planning to the implementation phase and prioritizing funding for the NAP implementation.

Italy pledges to oversee the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on male violence against women (2017-2020) and raise awareness on the scourge of sexual exploitation and abuse, promote guidelines, and support initiatives in favor of the victims.

Participation: Italy commits to consolidating and supporting the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network and launch the Global Alliance ofRegional Women Mediator’s Network. As part of this effort, Italy willorganize a series of meetings and trainings, which include: “Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies: SDG 16 implementation and the path towards leaving no one behind” in May 2019, conference on “Remittances, the role of women, peace and development" in June 2019, a high-level seminar on the role of women and girls as drivers for peace by the end of 2019 and organize a women forum on the margins of the Mediterranean Dialogues also by end of 2019.

Jamaica

Security Sector: Jamaica will embark on a project to achieve maximum operational effectiveness for female service Members in Jamaica Defence force (JDF) in support of the WPS agenda by mainstreaming gender in the operations of Jamaica Defence Force, with the aim of increasing women’s participation in all levels including decision making and combatant roles. A Gender Advisor has been designated in this regard.

Japan

National Action Plan: Japan commits to implementing its revised National Action Plan (2019-2022) on UNSCR 1325 and relevant resolutions.

Update 29 January 2020: Japan has steadily implemented our revised National Action Plan on WPS from 2019 to 2022.

 

Japan will also provide financial support to Sri Lanka including developing its National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security under the G7 WPS Partnership Initiative.

Update 29 January 2020: Progress has been made in the drafting of the National Action Plan in Sri Lanka since April 2019. In addition, Japan has provided a grant aid worth USD2 million through UN Women to carry out the second phase of the ongoing WPS project in Sri Lanka.

The effective implementation of projects can sometimes suffer because of the profound security issues and challenges. Forexample, Japan’s supported programming in Sri Lanka had to be postponed because of terrorism risks. It sometimes has limited budgetary terms (of 1-2 years) and is difficult when progress of that project is delayed.

 

Relief and Recovery: Japan will strengthen gender responsive humanitarian relief, rehabilitation and recovery assistance through international organizations such UNICEF, UNFPA, WFP, OCHA, IOM, including Japanese NGOs working on this area. As the G20 Summit Chair, Japan will stronglypromote women’s economic empowerment and girls’ education at the Osaka G20 Summit in 2019

Update 29 January 2020: As an official side-event of the G20 Osaka summit in June 2019, Japan convened the Leaders’ Special Event on Women’sEmpowerment, highlighting the importance and necessity of further efforts relating to women’s issues and the G20’s commitment to women’s empowerment. Japan has continuously provided gender responsive humanitarian relief, rehabilitation and recovery assistance through international organizations such as UNICEF, UNFPA, WFP, OCHA and IOM.

 

Peacekeeping: Continue to provide support for UN Women’s Female Military Officers Course, targeting peacekeepers from major troop contributing countries.

Update 29 January 2020: Japan co-funded conduct of the said course in Nairobi, Kenya in April 2019. Japan has also provided financial assistance to the UN “Senior Women Talent Pipeline”, a talent pool of external high potential female candidates for senior-level positions in UN peacekeeping and special political missions.

 

Financial commitments: Japan pledges to financially support 14 projects with UN Women worth USD 12 million and 3 projects led by the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict in Kenya, Iraq and Jordan, CAR and DRC.

Update 29 January 2020: 14 projects with UN Women and 3 projects with the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict have been implemented from April 2019 and will be finalized by the end of March 2020.

Jordan

National Action Plan: Jordan will implement a national communications strategy that focuses on raising awareness of the link between peace, security and gender, and that promotes gender equality and a culture of peace and non – violence, in line with Jordan's National Action Plan (2018-2021).

Update 29 January 2020: 4-year plan 2020-2024: outlines advocacy and communication strategies for WPS.

 

Peacekeeping: Jordan will increase the number of women in police and military in peacekeeping missions through concrete support to their relevant Women's Units (in line with UNSG's Action for Peace) by October 2020, building on Jordan’s recent announcement of deploying 25 women peacekeepers to Abyei to assist UNISFA.

Update 29 January 2020: Increased number of female police and military in peacekeeping missions so that they are in line with SG A4P.

Deployment challenge due to political circumstances.

Kazakhstan

Gender Equality: Republic of Kazakhstan commits to strengthening pro- women and gender equality policies and integrating WPS in national legislations, and will submit its 5th Periodic Report of Kazakhstan to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: Joining the Secretary-General’s Voluntary Compact and Circle of Leadership on sexual exploitation and abuse.

Kenya

National Action Plan: Kenya commits to adopting its second NAP on the implementation of UNSC resolution 1325 and to systematically contributingto the SG’s report on the Women, Peace and Security.

As part of efforts to advance the WPS agenda, Kenya will seek to institutionalize the Women, Peace and Security agenda through policy in ministries, counties, departments and agencies.

Update 8 June 2020: On 27 May 2020, Kenya announced the adoption of its second NAP, for the period 2020-2024.

Republic of Korea

Security Sector: South Korea commits to increasing women’s representation in the areas of national defense, security, peace, and unification policies of the government, including the number female foreign officers at Director level in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Peacekeeping: South Korea will make efforts to increase women’s participation and gender equality in peacekeeping operations, by pledging to increase women participation from 17 percent to 25 percent by 2028 in staff officer and military observer positions in line with UN Uniform Gender Parity Strategy

Financial commitments: Pledges USD 8 million to support projects that address the particular needs of women and girls in conflict and post-conflict situations on the ground through UNICEF and UNFPA to provide tailored assistance to Asian and African countries, and to support UN Women’s programmes on gender-responsive peacebuilding.

Civil Society: Strengthen cooperation with civil society organizations in the implementation process of women, peace, and security agenda in South Korea and abroad

Sexual Violence: Convene the annual international conference on the initiative “Action with Women and Peace.” This year in Seoul the theme will focus on how to end sexual violence in conflict.

Latvia

National Action Plan: Latvia commits to develop its first National Action Planon Women, Peace and Security. Latvia’s WPS objectives will include actions in domestic policy, as well as within multi-lateral and bilateral cooperation.

Capacity Building: Latvia together with Sweden, Namibia and NGO Control Arms is organizing training courses on better understanding on GBV as part of arm transfers and application of the ATT and risk assessment criteria.

Liberia

National Action Plan: Liberia commits to adopting its second National Action Plan and ensure budgetary support for its implementation. Additionally, Liberia will reconstitute the National and County Steering Committees and establish nine Gender Units in ministries and agencies to allow for adequate implementation and localization of the WPS agenda.

Gender Equality: Will ensure the passage of the Domestic Violence Bill into law and support the Ratification Optional Protocol of CEDAW.

Economic Empowerment: Liberia pledges to economically empower 4,000 women through cash transfer, support 3,000 adolescent girls through business and skills development, and provide access to 3,000 women to land ownership in rural communities.

Liechtenstein

Sexual and Gender Based Violence: Liechtenstein commits to addressing harmful gender stereotypes underlying SGBV by promoting gender neutral language in relevant GA and Human Rights Council (HRC) resolutions and awareness raising of SGBV against men and boys, including by organizing at least one event in the framework of the UN.

Update 29 January 2020: In 2019, Liechtenstein actively promoted references to SGBV, including against men and boys, in several GA and HRC resolutions, and co-sponsored several of them.

Liechtenstein organized events on SGBV in Geneva and New York in 2019 and is planning future events in 2020.

 

Liechtenstein will continue to issue recommendations to address human rights violations of women and children, including SGBV against women and men, girls and boys, at the UPR of the HRC in Geneva.

Update 29 January 2020: During the 2019 UPR-Sessions Liechtenstein made several recommendations on SGBV, gender-based discrimination, violence against LGBTI and sexual exploitation of children. Liechtenstein furthermore supported joint statements mentioning SGBV and raised the topic in statements in national capacity.

 

Participation: Commit to support equal participation of women at all levels of decision-making, including peace processes, electoral processes and UN positions in relevant GA and HRC resolutions.

Update 29 January 2020: In 2019 Liechtenstein supported equal participation of women at all levels of decision-making through different initiatives.

 

Sustain the strong focus of Liechtenstein’s International Humanitarian Cooperation and Development on the participation, prevention and protection pillars of the WPS agenda.

Update 29 January 2020: Sustain the strong focus of Liechtenstein’s International Humanitarian Cooperation and Development on the participation, prevention and protection pillars of the WPS agenda.

Luxembourg

Financial commitments: Luxembourg will continue to contribute to the work of UN Women and Justice Rapid Response in strengthening criminal justice and accountability for sexual and gender-based violence in conflict. Luxembourg will continue financing of projects and initiatives in the fields of Countering sexual and gender-based violence and the fight against impunity

National Action Plan: Luxembourg commits to investing in yearly monitoring of the implementation “Women and Peace and Security” Action Plan (2018- 2023), in addition to enhancing coordination with civil society on the implementation of NAP.

Luxembourg will also promote the Women, Peace and Security agenda in multilateral forums and in bilateral contexts.

Malaysia

Peacekeeping: Malaysia commits to increasing the number of women of Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) to be involved in many peacekeeping missions under the UN flag as troop’s members, military staff and militaryobserver in providing protection to the victims of an armed conflict regardless of race and gender, in addition to enhancing the capacity and awareness of Malaysian troops and peacekeepers on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse at the Malaysian Peacekeepers Training Center.

Enhance experience and capabilities through the deployment of female troops and expertise such as medical staff, doctors and logistician in few other locations in the context of the Humanitarian Assistant and Disaster Relief.

Malta

National Action Plan: Malta commits to adopting its first National Action Plan on the implementation of UNSC resolution 1325.

Update 29 January 2020

Overview: Focusing on women’s protection – sex trafficking and integration back into society.

We are trying to increase our interaction and synergies with civil society and national organizations.

E.g. Conference on trafficking of women in West Africa, e.g. identifying victims of trafficking, protection and rehabilitation of victims.

 

Gender Equality: Pledges to ratify the Optional Protocol to CEDAW.

Mexico

Peacekeeping: Mexico will deploy a greater amount of female personnel as staff officers and military observers in UN Peace Operations, duly trained according to the standards of the Organization. The Joint Training Center for Peace Operations of Mexico (CECOPAM) has begun to provide courses on gender perspective and the WPS Agenda to military and police personnel who will be deployed in the near future in UN Peace Operations.

Update 29 January 2020: Now in 5 peace operations, 40% of deployed personnel are women.

Recently opened new facilities in joint training center, 40% of trainees are women.

Mexican Constitution limits deployment to police and observers, first female observer sent to India-Pakistan mission.

27 people deployed.
Courses on gender perspectives and WPS. Supporting Elsie initiative (in the works).

Developing course with UNW on gender in training center (in progress).

 

Security Sector: In cooperation with international organizations, Mexico will develop trainings on human rights and gender for personnel of the national security forces.

Update 29 January 2020: Launched new National Guard—working with OHCHR that all guard forces will be trained on gender and human rights.

Montenegro

National Action Plan: Montenegro commits to developing, adopting and implementing its second National Action Plan on UNSC resolution 1325 (2019-2022), in addition to prioritizing annual reporting to the Government of Montenegro, to the Committee on Gender Equality, and to the Security and Defence Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro, on the implementation of the Action Plan.

Update 29 January 2020: Second NAP was adopted in September last year and women’s participation is one of its focus areas.

Several activities have been defined to operationalize the NAP and to help the government implement the plan.

Challenges:

WPS implementation is made difficult by societal challenges. For example, the fact that the military is mostly male delays implementation. It is therefore important to consider bringing the army closer to the population.

Another challenge has been the focus on NAP implementation, only around reporting periods. One key lesson that will be reflected in the 2nd NAP is therefore to plan frequent reports on implementation of the NAP, namely every six months.

 

MoD will increase cooperation with other state Ministries and relevant civil sector representatives participating at the implementation of NAP on 1325 at national level, through mutual training activities and seminars at all levels

Update 29 January 2020: Strategies were developed concerning GBV, SV, VAW.

Training activities were organized for gender coordinators and gender advisers within the military.

A specific database was also developed to facilitate women’s opportunities to pursue their career.

 

Security Sector: Montenegro commits to strengthening regional cooperation through the Second phase of UNDP/SEESAC Project 2019-2021 on integration of gender perspectives in the Security Sector Reform in the Western Balkan countries.

Update 29 January 2020:  Several activities were implemented, including regional meetings to map best practices and to integrate gender perspectives incountries’ strategies.

 

Enhance the measures for implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of key NATO and UN policies within the Defense system, invest in training for new Gender Officers and trainers of the armed forces, in cooperation with regional and international partners, and nominate a Gender Advisor for the armed forces of Montenegro.

Update 29 January 2020: Within the Ministry of Defense, an annual action plan has been developed, and over 75% of activities related to WPS have already been implemented.

Namibia

National Action Plan: Namibia commits to prioritizing the implementation of its first National Action Plan on USNCR 1325 which was launched in 2019. Under this umbrella, Namibia will also strengthen the Germany-Namibia G7 WPS Focal Point Network Partnership.

Update 29 January 2020: The NAP was launched in June last year. The roll out of the NAP has started.

Constraints – budgeting and financial resources. Gender responsive budgeting has been mainstreamed throughout all the ministries though, so we hope implementation will not be stalled too much with mainstreaming in day-to-day budgets.

 

Peacekeeping: Namibia pledges to establish a Women’s Peace Centre focused on national, regional and international conflict resolution and management.

Update 29 January 2020: Capacity building around peacekeeping as well as mediation.

Last year in September, we started reaching out more to possible partners, to create a network, consult on a concept note anddetermine the scope of what we’re trying to set up. We’re still open to multilateral and bilateral partnerships, particularly in terms of financing, but also to support technical capacity.

Timeline was to have it up and running this year, but there is a new government. We might be looking at next year realistically.

Nepal

National Action Plan: Nepal commits to the adoption of its second NAP that will be localized at the provincial and local governments policies and programmes. Nepal will also share experience and lessons learned in conflict prevention, peacebuilding and recovery.

Netherlands

National Action Plan: Netherlands commits to developing and adopting its fourth National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325. This will be done in consultation with civil society organizations and will be informed by lessons and recommendation of evaluation of eight women peace and security projects under the third NAP of the Netherlands that will be undertaken by February 2020.

Update 29 January 2020: The development of the fourth NAP1325 of the Netherlands, in cooperation with civil society and several ministries, is currently ongoing. The current eight women, peace and security programmes have been extended by one year (6 with funding, 2 no-cost), so the evaluations will be finalized later this year. Lessons learned of these evaluations as well as conclusions from the Mid Term Review of our third NAP1325 will be taken into account in the development of the fourth Dutch NAP1325.

Financial contribution: Pledges contributions to the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund and to the Elsie Trust Fund, and project funding for WILPF & PTI to facilitate space for Yemeni women to lead a localized, inclusive and sustainable feminist peace process.

Update 29 January 2020: These financial contributions are currently ongoing.

Besides, we have recently launched the SDG5 fund, part of which is a new instrument for WPS programmes starting in 2021. For the period 2021-2025, EUR 40 million (EUR 8 million per year) will be available for WPS programmes. This is double the amount that was available for programmes under our third NAP1325.

From 2020-2024, we are also contributing to the NGO WG on WPS.

Norway

National Action Plan: Norway commits to implementing its fourth National action plan for WPS with higher goals, improved results framework for annual reporting.

Update 29 January 2020: The implementation of our National Action Plan is in full swing. The first internal annual report of this phase shows high levels of activity and adjustments to reflect the new plan’s higher goals. The first official annual report based on an improved results framework is in process. We expect to finalize it by June.

 

Norway will also support the development of the second Global Women, Peace and Security Index on Women, Peace and Security, to improve relevance and targeting of WPS as well as conflict prevention efforts, to be launched in October 2019.

Update 29 January 2020: The second Global Women, Peace and Security Index on Women, Peace and Security was launched 22 October 2019 in New York, as expected. Support for third index has also been granted, to be launched October 2021.

 

Financial commitments: Pledges to increase funding dedicated to targeted WPS policies and efforts, including through civil society and the Women, Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF). Its priority countries will be Afghanistan, Colombia, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, Palestine, the Philippines, Syria and South Sudan, as well as the African Union as a regional organization.

Update 29 January 2020: We are funding women, peace and security efforts locally, nationally, regionally and internationally. We are supporting the Women, Peace and Humanitarian Fund through a three year agreement, as promised. Decisions on embassy budgets are in process, indicating that specific women, peace and security partnerships will be supported not only in all ten priority countries, but in another ten countries. Gender equality efforts are supported in nearly fifty countries marked by conflict.

 

Norway pledges to increase the proportion of Norwegian aid to countries in conflict and post-conflict marked with a gender marker with a target of no less than the UN goal of 15 percent.

Update 29 January 2020: As for the proportion of our aid benefiting women and girls: A political decision was made in June 2019 to ensure that 50 % of all bilateral aid qualifies for the use of a gender marker. Operationalization is in process.

 

Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: Mobilize stronger political commitment to protect and assist people at risk and survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, as well as additional financial resources to the response, while highlighting best practices and lessons learned, including through the hostingof the upcoming international conference “Ending sexual and gender-based violence in humanitarian crises” in Oslo in May 2019.

Update 29 January 2020: On Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, we made one specific commitment related to humanitarian crises: A successfull conference was held in Oslo in May 2019, resulting in major financial and political commitments.

 

Norway will support the finalization of the all-of-mission handbook with and for the UN on preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence, for use in UN operations and to be launched this summer.

Update 29 January 2020: We did support the finalization of the all-of-mission handbook with and for the UN on preventing and responding to conflict- related sexual violence, for use in UN operations. There have been some delays, but it was soft launched in October 2019, and will be rolled-out in missions this year.

 

Peacekeeping: Support a study on the impact of women’s participation in peacekeeping, to be finalized the spring of 2020.

Update 29 January 2020: We are supporting a study on the impact of women’s participation in peacekeeping, as promised. There have been delays due to illness, but we are making efforts to ensure that it is finalized within the coming months.

 

Norway, in partnership with Canada, is pledging the publication of a comprehensive and publicly available tool to identify and formulate strategies to address gender-specific barriers within Member States’ military and policeorganizations, in association with the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations. Norway and Canada have provided funding to the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) to develop and publish this Barrier Assessment Methodology, which Member States will be able to use to inform policies and practices to reduce barriers for uniformed women,and to increase women’s meaningful participation in UN peace operations.

Update 29 January 2020: In partnership with Canada, we are supporting the development and testing of a comprehensive barrier assessment methodology, which will identify universal and context-specific barriers to women’s meaningful participation in UN peace operations and in a country’s military and police organizations. We expect that a case study to test the methodology on the Norwegian armed forces will start shortly.

 

Mediation: Together with the other regional networks of women mediators, the Norwegian branch within the framework of the Nordic Network of Women Mediators will work to strengthen synergies and explore opportunities for cooperation and launch a global alliance of such networks.

Update 29 January 2020: Finally, together with the other regional networks of women mediators, we have worked to strengthen synergies and explore opportunities for cooperation. A Global Alliance of such networks was launched in September 2019, and we are working on follow-up and common action points.

Palestine

National Action Plan: State of Palestine commits to developing and adopting its second National Action Plan on the implementation of UNSCR 1325 (2020-2022), in addition to submitting the State’s initial report to the SecretaryGeneral on the implementation of the NAP.

Participation: Palestine will also work to enhance women’s participation in the reconciliation Process.

Justice: State of Palestine will hold Israel accountable by:

  • Demanding the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open an investigation on the crimes committed by Israel, the occupying power, against Palestinian people through submitting monthly reports to the Office of the Prosecutor on the systematic Human Rights violations perpetrated by Israel, the occupying power, against Palestinian women and girls. In addition, following up on the referral submitted by the State of Palestine to the ICC pursuant to articles 13(a) and 14 of the Rome Statue.

  • Following up on the Complaint submitted by the State of Palestine to the CERD Committee against Israel, the occupying power, for its systematic violations of the CERD convention, in order to stop such violations against Palestinian women and girls and take concrete actions to protect their rights.

  • Continuing the diplomatic efforts towards the adoption of international resolutions which condemn Israeli violations against Palestinians, and which ensure the protection of Palestinian women and girls against such violations.

  • Contacting relevant Special Rapporteurs, to highlight Israeli violations against Palestinian women and girls and ensuring their protection against such violations.

  • Providing verbal and written interventions, reports and draft resolutions on the violations committed by Israel, the occupying power, against Palestinian women and girls, before the different bodies of the United Nations.

Peru

Peacekeeping: In accordance with the UN Gender Parity Strategy, Peru commits to increasing female participation in peacekeeping operations, from 10 percent to 15 percent in Military Contingents by October 2020.

Update 29 January 2020: Of the 237 military contingents deployed, 38 or 16% are women. Peru envisions to increase women’s participation inpeacekeeping, and to reach 25% by the end of the year. And of the 38 women deployed, half are military officials. Challenges:

Peru began increasing women’s participation in the military in general a few years ago, and there are now more women operating as military officials. Yet, budget issues limit the possibility to send more troops, including more women abroad.

Considering the conservative nature of the society, women’s roles within the family, and the fact that the military are prepared to operate mainly inside the country, another challenge has been to prepare the peacekeepers, including female peacekeepers, for their deployment abroad.

Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: Peru pledges strong support for the zero- tolerance policy of the UN Secretary-General for sexual exploitation and abuse.

Update 29 January 2020: Peru supported the adoption of resolution 2436 (2018) two years ago.

The Ministry of Defense trains its personnel deployed to peacekeeping operations, on their roles, women’s rights... to prevent SEA. So far, there are has been no cases reported on the issue.

The army is also very strict about SEA and any complaint of harassment is immediately reported to a tribunal. There is therefore no challenge in implementing the zero-tolerance policy.

Poland

Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: Poland pledges to support the prevention of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence within the framework of Polish humanitarian aid and development assistance. This includes provision of support for victims of conflict-related sexual violence who apply for international protection in Poland. Poland will undertake efforts at international forums aiming at assuring accountability of perpetrators for acts of conflict-related sexual violence and strengthen the prevention efforts and the fight against impunity of peacekeepers who commit SEA.

Update 29 January 2020: In the process of implementing its NAP, Poland focuses mainly on women’s protection against CRSV.

This work is done with the support of UN Women, UNFPA, UNICEF, and through bilateral cooperation.

Peacekeeping: Ensure the inclusion of topics related to the protection and support of the victims of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence in pre-deployment training for missions and operations abroad, also for senior management and commanding staff, and in trainings for people who are interested in participating in such missions and operations.

Update 29 January 2020: Poland supports family support centres in Ukraine, which provide medical care services that benefit women to a large extent.

Support is also provided to women victims who apply for refugee status in Poland.

Updated guidelines have been produced for border guides, that present explicitly how to address the needs of sexual violence survivors.

In 2020, training activities will continue for peacekeepers, police officers as well as border guides.

Challenges: Women’s limited representation in the army and in government in general is an obstacle to WPS implementation. The army is essentially a male domain with 7% of women and a male leadership. In the government, four to five women lead ministries that are associated traditionally with gender roles (social policies, education...). As a result, political priorities are not on WPS or women’s rights in general.

Portugal

National Action Plan: Portugal will produce a monitoring report on the implementation of its third NAP on UNSC resolution 1325 (2019-2022).

Security Sector: Portugal will produce a study about the situation of women in the armed forces in Portugal, in addition to training national defense civil and military staff and security forces on gender equality and prevention of violence against women. Portugal will also institutionalize and train Gender Advisors in all national defense branches.

Civil Society Engagement: Organize awareness raising events to promote the integration of WPS in the work of civil society organizations

Romania

National Action Plan: Romania will prioritize the implementation of its National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325. As a means of ensuring effective implementation, Romania will organize periodic meetings of the Inter- institutional Working Group on the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 to assess progress.

Romania commits to active participation of the National Focal Point in the Global Network of National Focal Points for UNSCR 1325, in UN, EU, NATO and OSCE debates on UNSCR 1325, and at the meetings of the National Working Group on the implementation of UNSCR 1325

Peacekeeping: Undertake individual and collective gender pre-deployment training for all personnel before participating in UN Peace Operations.

Sierra Leone

National Action Plan: Sierra Leone commits to finalizing its second National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325 and 1820 in 2019.

Gender Equality: Sierra Leone commits to submitting the its 7th Periodic report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW); integrating the WPS agenda in the Cluster Five of the Medium- Term Development Plan (PRS IV) focused on Empowering Women, Children and Persons with Disability; launching its National Gender Strategic Plan 2019 -2023; and overseeing the establishment of Peace and National Cohesion Commission.

Sexual Gender-Based Violence: Strengthen the prevention and response to sexual gender-based violence through the declaration of Rape and Sexual Violence as National Emergency by the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone

Serbia

National Action Plan: Serbia will undertake an internal and external evaluation of current NAP (2017-2020) to inform the development the preparation/drafting of the new NAP. It will also commit to the localization of the NAP (with a plan to complete the implementation by the end of 2020).

Serbia will be deploying a NAP tracking software to allow for timely reporting on various indicators.

Gender Equality: Pledges to the adoption of the Law on Gender Equality in 2019, directly linking UNSCR 1325 to Serbia’s national legislation

Serbia will also ensure that gender-responsive budgeting is implemented by all local institutions. This will be done jointly by the coordination body of Gender Equality and the Ministry of Finance, supported by UN Women with the aim of ensuring all budgets by 2020 both state and local institutions include gender in their budgets.

Slovenia

Slovenia will continue to promote WPS agenda at home and in international community, including with awareness-raising activities and education as well as the organization of events.

Update 29 January 2020: Holding of various conferences and events.

At home: 2019 Panel on (Re)sources in Women’s Hands – Tapping the Potential hosted by Bled Strategic Forum.

Abroad: Taking over the chairmanship of the OSCE MenEngage Network in Vienna in summer 2019.

 

Security sector: The Slovenian Armed Forces (Ministry of Defense) will continue to strive for a high level of competence of women and men regarding the WPS Agenda and will continue to advocate for a meaningful participation of female and male members of SAF in international operations and missions.

Update 29 January 2020: Conducting regular education and training of gender perspective with the Slovenian Armed Forces.

 

Slovenia will promote and strengthen the integration of gender perspective into different areas of security policies and interventions such as the International Gender Champions, Friends of Women in Nuclear and Men Engage. Slovenia will continue to highlight the WPS agenda in international forums related to arms control and obligations related to export control.

Update 29 January 2020: Include countries’ performance on GBV in export assessment (e.g. in arms sales).​

Peacekeeping: The Declaration of Shared Commitments on UN Peacekeeping Operations emphasizes the importance of the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in all stages of peace processes. Slovenia will therefore strive for progress on the commitments from the Declaration.

Gender Equality: Slovenia plans to adopt guidelines for gender equality in international development cooperation in 2019.

Gender Based Violence in Emergencies: By joining the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies in June 2018, Slovenia has committed to integrate GBV prevention and response and gender equality into humanitarian planning processes, plans and reviews by financing one project on GBV in emergencies. Slovenia will publish the open call for humanitarian projects, including GBV in 2019.

Update 29 January 2020: Donation of EUR30,000 to the ICRC for combatting GBV in the DRC. Donation of EUR200,000 to Lebanon.

South Africa

National Action Plan: South Africa pledges to finalize its first National Action Plan on UNSC resolution by end of 2019. South Africa will also prioritize matters of youth engagement, particularly young women in the WPS agenda, to promote intergenerational action.

Update 29 January 2020: The NAP has been adopted in consultation with civil society.

 

Mediation: South Africa commits to hosting training programmed for women mediators and negotiators for women leaders throughout the Africa in 2020.

Update 29 January 2020: Three trainings are scheduled for 2020: one for local women (Feb/March), one for women from across the world (August) and one for youth (Dec).

 

Peacekeeping: South Africa will actively participate in the WPS collective approaches (WPS Focal Points Network, Elsie Initiative, UN Voluntary compact on address sexual exploitation and abuse).

Update 29 January 2020: South Africa will be co-hosting the WPS Focal Points network in 2021 together with Switzerland.

Implementation of accountability mechanisms to address SEA (including DNA testing).

Spain

National Action Plan: Spain will undertake performance evaluation and revision of the II NAP (2017-2023). It will also provide financial and technical support to the implementation mechanism of the Jordan NAP.

Financial commitments: Spain pledges to make an annual contribution to the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund.

Sri Lanka

National Action Plan: Sri Lanka commits to developing and adopting its first National Action Plan on the implementation of UNSC resolution 1325 by October 2020.

Sweden

National Action Plan: Sweden will actively support the implementation of the Iraqi National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security through inter alia support to civil society.

Update 29 January 2020: The Iraqi National Action Plan 2014-2018 has not been allocated the necessary resources. This assessment (which is shared by several representatives of civil society organizations) is made with the understanding that the first years after 2014 came to be characterized by the war against Daesh. A new plan for the period 2019-2023 is now under preparation. Several of the women’s organizations receiving support through Sida have been or are involved in this process. Examples of activities: advocating to security sector officials in the Kurdish Region of Iraq about the necessity of establishing a gender unit within the security sector as well as the education sector; strengthening 38 women's capacity to speak out and advocate for their rights and have representation in the decision-making institutions.

 

At the regional level Sweden will promote the implementation of the new EU Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security in EU common security and defence policy (CSDP) and in CSDP missions and operations.

Update 29 January 2020: The EU Action Plan on WPS was adopted in July 2019. Sweden actively promotes its implementation in different EU fora as well as in CSDP missions and operations.

 

Advocacy: Sweden will organize a multi-stakeholder meeting on Women, Peace and Security for civil society, UN Security Council members and UN representatives in conjunction with the Open Debates on Women, Peace and Security 2019 and 2020.

Update 29 January 2020: This took place in 2019 and we plan to have another WPS multi- stakeholder meeting in October 2020.

 

Sweden will follow up on, and assess progress of, Swedish recommendations 2018 to the UN Secretary General on implementation of women, peace and security mandates in UN missions.

Update 29 January 2020: Several of the recommendations, i.e. around leadership responsibilities and follow up, were committed to by the SG in the report to the Open Debate on WPS 2019. Sweden constantly monitors development of WPS in UN mission mandates and brings in WPS-issues into UN reform, Peacebuilding commission etc.

 

Capacity building: Sweden will offer training to incoming and existing UN Security Council members on integrating women, peace and security in ordinary work of the Council.

Update 29 January 2020: Sweden has had training sessions with Norway, South Africa and Estonia and shared training/analysis material on UN mission mandates with Belgium, Germany and others.

Training should not simply be a box-ticking exercise but a way to introduce a gender-sensitive lens within organisations for long- term change. While organizations are different in nature, it is important to promote strong leadership, namely at the level of the organisation that is required to implement the know-how and effect change.

 

Mediation: Sweden commits to strengthening women’s participation in peace processes including through activities of mediators in the Swedish women mediators’ network.

Update 29 January 2020: Several ongoing activities of the network and our embassies and special envoys to strengthen women’s participation, i.e. in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Sudan.

 

Participation: Pledges support to women's participation in the Yemeni peace talks through increased pressure on both the parties as well as the Office of the Special Envoy to increase the number of women participating in future consultations or peace negotiations. Sweden will support the Sanaa Centre for Strategic Studies in Yemen and their Gender Analysis for Progressive Policy project which aims to increase women's participation in political and peace processes in Yemen, including by producing a number of policy briefs, holding workshops and finalizing an in-depth research report.

Update 29 January 2020: Sweden’s deep engagement for the Yemen crisis continues. We maintain dialogue with the parties, the UN and regional actors, in which we continuously raise the issues of women’s participation in the political process.

This project was completed in late 2019 with the publication of the report “A Gendered Crisis: Understanding the Experiences of Yemen’s War”. The report was also presented at a conference in Amman co-hosted by Sana’a Center and the Swedish Embassy, discussing its findings and policy recommendations.

 

Sweden will advocate for increased participation of women in Iraqi national dialogue on reconciliation through support to Iraq Foundation’s work withfemale parliamentarians.

Update 29 January 2020: Support to the Iraq Foundation (IF) and Global Partners Governance (GPG) for the project “Improving Policy, Service Delivery, Gender Equality and Responsiveness to Iraqi Citizens”, started a year ago. The project focuses on four key objectives: strategic and reform-focused political leadership within the parliament; parliamentary committees adopting more inclusive and evidence-based policy mechanisms; linking parliament with the provinces and constituencies on service delivery; and cross- cutting support to female parliamentarians. Examples of activities during the first year of implementation: the women’s committee requested support on establishing the committee’s strategy and priorities in managing effective legislation impacting women, children and families, and reviewing Iraq’s CEDAW commitments under the Committee’s portfolio (Note: The Chair of the Committee stepped down as of October 2019, which has put this work on hold); and workshops with several CSOs to explore how they can influence decision makers.

 

Sweden will promote women’s political leadership in Colombia through technical support to the political reform and strengthening women’s civil society.

Update 29 January 2020: Ongoing. Gender is a strong component in the country strategy for Colombia, specifically greater influence and meaningful participation for women in the peace process and the implementation of the peace agreement in accordance with the UN Security Council’s resolutions on women, peace and security.

 

Sweden will finance a UN Women study on increased female participation in view of elections 2023 to follow up on a previous study on women’s politicalparticipation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The study will be presented in several provinces in the DRC.

Update 29 January 2020: The study was finalized and presented in a number of provinces in 2019 along with a National Program for Women ́s Political Participation and a Roadmap for 2019-2023.

 

Civil Society Engagement: Financially support civil society organizations active in conflict and post-conflict countries.

Update 29 January 2020: Sweden has increased its support to civil society organisations active in conflict- and post-conflict countries.

 

Sexual and Gender Based Violence: Support the work on sexual and gender- based violence of the UN mission in the Central African Republic through a Specialized Police Team focusing on capacity building of local police and support to victims.

Update 29 January 2020: A Swedish Specialized Police Team with police experts within the field of sexual and gender-based violence, Investigations and Project management has been deployed in MINUSCA and remains active.

 

Peacekeeping: Support gender-responsive leadership through support to senior leadership within DPO and DPPA as well as in the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability within EEAS, and through seconded personnel to CSDP missions and operations.

Update 29 January 2020: Sweden has more than 20 seconded gender experts in UN and EU missions. Sweden has supported UN leadership in gender responsive leadership programs through the Folke Bernadotte Academy 2019 and these programs are currently being followed up upon.

 

Contribute with Swedish experts to the European Security and Defence College training on investigating and preventing sexual and gender-based violence in conflict environments targeting civil and military staff to be deployed in peace keeping missions.

Conduct a field mission, possibly to South Sudan, to follow up on the in-depth study Sweden undertook in 2018 of implementation of UN mission mandates.

Security Sector: Support an increase of female-seconded staff to UN prison and probation services by conducting a pre-deployment training specifically targeting women. Arrange a panel on security policy on the Korean Peninsula in Seoul with only female participants to highlight the lack of women in conferences, panels and seminars about the political development.

Update 29 January 2020: The pre-deployment training took place as planned and had 20 female participants from 10 different countries. The training focused on the Nelson Mandela Rules, mentorship, the UN system among other things.

 

 

Support inclusive peace in Venezuela, including through ensuring that a gender analysis and a women, peace and security perspective is integrated in processes that aim at a peaceful and democratic solution of the crisis in Venezuela.

Update 29 January 2020: Sweden has approached this from different angles, i.e: Sweden arranged a round-table discussion in Brussels in January 2020 with women from the opposition in Venezuela, together with Independent Diplomats. Sweden conducted a field mission in January 2020 including meetings with official representatives and CSOs. Sweden supported the European Institute for Peace (EIP) report “Gender assessment of the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela” 2019.

Switzerland

National Action Plan: Switzerland is prioritizing the implementation of its recently launched fourth NAP (2018-2022). Building on these experiences, Switzerland commits to collaborate with Chad in developing its first National Action Plan by undertaking a Needs Assessment that will establish concrete baselines and recommendations by mid-2020.

Update 29 January 2020: The first phase of the project started in April 2019 and was completed at the end of August 2019. It was implemented through our partner GNWP. The first phase entailed an analysis of the context and a mapping of key actors (and their level of engagement), the structures in place, the priorities and existing legislations.

Some of the main findings of this first phase are:

  • There are numerous local initiatives relevant to 1325 in Chad;

  • Chadian women often take or demand a leadership role in conflict prevention on the local level;

  • The international community supports a number of initiatives related to 1325 in Chad;

  • There is an interest and political will of national authorities to work on the WPS agenda in Chad.

Based on these findings, Switzerland decided to support the Ministère de la Femme in the elaboration of the NAP, which will be the second phase of this ongoing initiative.

However, as we are still discussing the continuation of this project with our partner, the starting date of this second phase still has to be determined.

Some challenges were identified during the mapping exercise which are now reflected in the prioritization of the second phase. Concretely, it is essential that the involved Chadian Ministries take the lead and commit to a pangovernmental approach in order to guarantee a support from the concerned sectors. Furthermore, a particular attention should be payed to the dissemination and implementation of policies and laws adopted at the national level. Ensuring an inclusive and localized approach should be guiding principles throughout the second phase of this initiative.

 

Human Rights: Switzerland will also work with the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders on a policy brief on linkages between corruption, human rights and the women, peace and security agenda. In addition, Switzerland will update its Guidelines for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders with a strong reference to Women Human Rights Defenders and publish these Guidelines.

Update 29 January 2020:

Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP):

  • Switzerland provides financial aid to the project of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP) concerning intersections between Corruption, Human Rights and Women, Peace and Security. The objective of the project is to establish the linkages between Corruption, Human Rights and the Women and Peace and Security agenda through the conduct of case studies and the production of a policy brief. The case study reports could be finalized. The development of the research tools, including questionnaires, took more time, because the researchers had to ensure that the questions were appropriate and sensitive, since victims of violence were interviewed.

  • The policy brief is in elaboration. It will complement the case studies by looking at the impacts of corruption through a gender lens.

Guidelines on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders:

Switzerland updated its Guidelines on the protection of Human Rights Defenders in 2019. The new version of the Guidelines entails a strong reference to Women Human Rights Defenders, the importance of their role and the specific challenges they face.

 

Financial commitments: Switzerland will support the Office of the Special Representative on Women, Peace and Security of the Secretary General of NATO with a Voluntary National Contribution.

Update 29 January 2020: Switzerland deployed an Advisor to the NATO SGSR for WPS in September 2019. As part of the team of the SGSR, the Advisor is supporting the implementation of the NATO WPS Policy and Action Plan.

Challenges: Being a Partner (and not an Ally) can sometime limit the access to documents etc. in an organization like NATO; there are still resistance to the WPS agenda internally; the collaboration between civilian and military is not always as smooth as we would hope.

Turkey

Relief and Recovery: Turkey commits to providing assistance and psychosocial support to women and girls affected by armed conflict in the region by taking into account their specific protection needs.

United Arab Emirates

Peacekeeping: The United Arab Emirates pledges, through its partnership with UN Women and based on a Memorandum of Understanding signed in September 2018, to expand the Military and Peacekeeping Training Programme for Arab Women over the next two years and to include trainees and cadets from other countries.

Update 29 January 2020: A first round of WPS training has been completed and a second round started in January 2020.

 

Knowledge Development and Research: Ahead of the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution 1325, the UAE, in collaboration with the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS), will convene a panel series on Women, Peace and Security to highlight important milestones and initiatives/partnerships in the implementation of UNSC resolutions 1325 (2000) and subsequent resolutions. The series will explore under-studied areas of the agenda, including post- conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding, and will elevate research to inform data-driven policy and practice for more sustainable peace outcomes. The outcome of the panel series will include a set of recommendations for member states, civil society, and international organizations in the next phase of implementation.

Update 29 January 2020: A first panel series in collaboration with the GIWPS has been organized in October 2019; a second series is scheduled for March 2020.

United Kingdom

Financial commitments: The United Kingdom commits to promote women’smeaningful participation in peace processes and have allocated GBP 300,000 of funding to this area of work. The countries of focus - although not exclusively - include Afghanistan, South Sudan and Yemen, where the UK will press for women’s needs, concerns and priorities to be taken into consideration at all levels - from the community to the negotiating table and beyond.

The UK will also commit to increase support for women working to resolve conflict, counter violent extremism and build peace at the local level, and commit GBP 800,000 to the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund over the next year.

Update 29 January 2020: Contributed over £1 million to the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund.

 

The UK also reaffirms its commitment to supporting the role of women in peacekeeping, pledging GBP 1 million to the Elsie Initiative for Uniformed Women in Peace Operations, to support and incentivize more meaningful participation of uniformed women in UN peace operations, and accelerate the much-needed progress towards achieving UN targets.

Update 29 January 2020: Contributed over £1 million to the Elsie Initiative.

 

Civil Society Engagement: Commit to reinforce the vital role of civil society by consulting with civil society groups on the UK’s nine National Action Plan focus countries. These consultations are essential to understanding the needs of stakeholders, including survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.

Update 29 January 2020: Conducted an evaluation of the NAP – the report will be published to parliament in the next weeks.

 

Security Sector: The UK will redouble efforts to advance the Women Peace and Security agenda through the UK military. This will include: providing relevant training to at least 100 UK and international military every year; identifying and training military Gender and Protection Advisers; analyzing the prevalence of sexual violence in areas in which the UK military operate; and stepping up training for women officers.

Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: The UK is working with the Institute for International Criminal Investigations and Nadia’s Initiative to develop the Murad Code, an ethical code of conduct that aims to ensure that survivors of sexual violence give informed consent regarding evidence gathering, and that they are referred to support services safely and confidentially. The UK is seeking to see the Code incorporated into all donor funding requirements and will invite Member States to sign up when the UK launch it at PSVI International Conference in London in November.

Uruguay

National Action Plan: Uruguay commits to develop and adopt its first National Action Plan on UNSC resolution 1325, which will incorporate broad participation of civil society and Uruguay peacekeeping and peacebuilding strategies and policies.

Update 29 January 2020: Progress on the NAP delayed due to national elections. Trained Forces on WPS and Children in Conflict.

 

Uruguay will Co-Chair the WPS Focal Point Network.

Update 29 January 2020: Chairing the WPS Focal Point Network.

 

Financial commitments: Uruguay pledges to take active steps to support the Elsie Initiative.

Update 29 January 2020: Supports Elsie Initiative.

 

Gender Equality: Uruguay will submit its 10th Periodic Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

African Union

National Action Plans: The African Union (AU) commits to advocating that 50 percent of its membership adopt NAPs by 2020.

The AU pledges to roll out the Continental Results Framework for monitoring and reporting on the Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda in Africa (CRF) in all AU Member States that have adopted National Action Plans on UNSCR 1325.

The AU will produce an Annual Report of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on the Status of WPS in Africa and share with the UN Security Council.

European Union

Regional Action Plan: The EU commits to the adoption of its first Regional Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, which represents the EU Strategic approach to the WPS agenda and is in line with the EU Strategic Approach of December 2018, and will focus on the 6 overarching objectives: participation, promotion, gender mainstreaming, prevention, protection and relief and recovery.

Update 29 January 2020: The WPS RAP was adopted with the six overarching objectives: participation, promotion, gender mainstreaming, prevention, protection and relief and recovery.

The RAP development process was multilevel, with the involvement of civil society, NATO and EU Member States.

Challenges:

WPS implementation remains difficult due to the need to change the narrative in EU countries and in EU institutions. For instance, the EU Strategic approach to WPS has tried to avoid a siloed approach and to be more holistic, horizontal. Yet, this is still difficult.

Concerning the RAR, it has also been difficult to bring all the actors together, outside the UN/UNW, to find an entry point to implement the resolution.

 

The EU will also launch of the Regional Acceleration of Resolution 1325 (RAR) framework to promote the faster adoption of National Action Plans on UNSCR 1325 by EU Member states.

Update 29 January 2020: The RAR was also launched to strengthen connectivity between gender actors and their communities to advance WPS implementation.

Stories and best practices are available.

 

Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: The EU will promote an EU-wide policy on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Sexual Harassment and establish a new framework with zero tolerance.

Update 29 January 2020: The plan is to establish a new framework for zero tolerance on SEA.

While the EU is trying to build on the tools we already have and not to reinvent the wheel, it is sometimes difficult to implement what we already have without being repetitive.

OSCE – Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)

Human Rights: ODIHR will publish a report on the situation of human rights defenders in five selected OSCE peace support operations, which will prominently feature specific challenges women human rights defenders face and provide recommendations to states on how to address these.

By the 20-year anniversary of WPS, ODIHR will launch and contribute to WPS related guidance on human rights and gender, clearly linked to human security. This will include an updated ODIHR-DCAF Handbook on Human Rights of the Armed Forces, and an updated DCAF-ODIHR-UN Women Gender and Security Toolkit.

Trafficking: ODIHR will launch National Referral Mechanism Handbook, which will highlight trafficking as form of violence against women, include recognition of its incidence in conflict and provide practical measures to address bias, prejudice, gender stereotypes and other challenges that hamper human rights compliant security sector response and assistance to victims of trafficking.

ODIHR will capitalize on in-house subject matter expertise on gender and Security Sector Governance and Reform (SSG/R), providing targeted support to OSCE peace support operations in their policy and capacity building efforts, and ensure that at least 3 PSOs will benefit from this expertise.

UN-Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED)

Gender Mainstreaming: CTED commits to continuing to ensure that gender is integrated into its country assessment work and increase the number of recommendations to Member States with regard to gender-sensitive counter- terrorism and CVE approaches, where applicable.

Update 29 January 2020: We have benefited from UN Women’s support, who now systematically provide background information on the countries that we visit. In 2019, UN Women participated in 5 country visits.

Overall, we have increased the number of times that we have a dedicated gender expert on missions.

And we are tracking gender related recommendations from assessment reports that come from these missions.

 

CTED commits to strengthening the evidence base on the drivers of female radicalization to terrorism and the impacts of counter-terrorism strategies onwomen’s human rights by gathering and disseminating gender-sensitive research and holding relevant research-focused events with the participationof women’s civil society representatives and academics/researchers.

Update 29 January 2020: Various events and research initiatives:

E.g. On 1 November 2019, we held an open briefing on integrating gender in CT and CVE. Wide audience including member states and civil society too.

E.g. A research project in the pipeline with UN Women too. An update will be provided later once the project is confirmed.

UN-Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA)

Strategic Planning: DPPA commits to the development and launch of Joint DPPA-DPO WPS Principles and a new DPPA Gender Policy.

Update 29 January 2020:

In June 2019, USG DiCarlo issued a new departmental Women, Peace and Security Policy. The Policy seeks to ensure that gender issues and perspectives are fully integrated into all the Department’s daily work to promote inclusive conflict prevention,mediation and peacebuilding. This policy mandates all Departmental staff to promote women’s meaningful participation in all peacemaking and peacebuilding efforts – particularly women’s roles as delegates to peace talks, including during pre- negotiation and implementation phases – and by ensuring regular dialogue between Special Representatives of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and Special Envoys and women’s civil society. The Policy applies to SRSGs, Special Envoys, management and staff equally, including those within the joint DPPA-DPO regional structure working in and on Special Political Missions (SPMs), liaison presences or on non-mission settings. DPPA’s recently finalized 2020-2022 Strategic Plan affirms this commitment stating that DPPA is determined to ensure “a gender perspective and women’s participation, protection, and rights are reflected in all of our work.”

As part of the Policy implementation, beginning this year, DPPA is committed to devoting at least 17 per cent of the annual MYAbudget towards women’s empowerment initiatives and programmes that recognize and help advance the crucial role of women in conflict prevention and sustaining peace.

Challenges:

Despite increased awareness including at leadership level, cultural challenges still prevent the prioritization of the agenda across different lines of responsibility and women’s access and participation remain limited. A proper analysis of these challenges is still needed, to understand the power dynamics, overcome resistance, and to facilitate the permeation of the WPS agenda across organisations.

In addition, the issue of accountability must be addressed, and people must be held accountable for not implementing the agenda.

 

DPPA will also implement the PBF strategic Plan target of 30 percent towards GEWE and the implementation of PBC gender strategy, in addition to reviewing and update the 7-Point Action Plan on gender-responsive peacebuilding.

Update 29 January 2020

In 2019, the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) allocated 40 per cent (around US$77 million) towards gender equality and women’s empowerment initiatives. This surpassed the PBF’s own 30 percent target of budgeting toward gender equality initiatives for the third year in the row.

Work is currently underway by the Peacebuilding Commission to review and strengthen its 2016 Gender Strategy, as well as toupdate the Secretary General’s 7-Point Action Plan on gender- responsive peacebuilding is underway together with UN Women.

 

Gender Mainstreaming: Strengthen the standards and use of gender- responsive political and conflict analysis, including improving gendered analysis in the Secretary-General’s reports to the Security Council and General Assembly, and integrating gender considerations in all DPPA lessons learning studies

Update 29 January 2020

Under the new DPPA WPS Policy, gender-responsive conflict and political analysis is recognized as the first and essential step towards inclusive conflict prevention, mediation and peacebuilding and is mandated as a departmental priority. To support staff in undertaking gender-responsive conflict and political analysis, in October 2019, DPPA together with DPO organized a pilot workshop on gender conflict analysis. Further workshops are planned to be rolled-out throughout 2020.

In line with the WPS policy, in 2019 gender analysis was undertaken in all lessons learned exercises, including through the engagement of gender expertise during all phases of the studies. DPPA is continuing to work to strengthen its monitoring and reporting processes to help track and support implementation of the Department’s WPS commitments.

 

Capacity Building: Training for SRSGs/envoys and senior mediation actors and staff on inclusive mediation strategies and integrating gender, WPS perspectives and gender equality across the work of the department

Update 29 January 2020: To help build the capacity of senior mediation actors from across the UN, Member States, international organizations, civil society and other partners to implement the WPS agenda, in November 2019, DPPA and partners conducted the 10th annual UN High- level Seminar on Gender and Inclusive Mediation Strategies in Helsinki. The seminar brought the total number of seminar participants to 254. In 2019, DPPA also conducted a training of departmental staff on Gender/Women, Peace and Security and jointly organized with DPO a pilot workshop on Gender Sensitive Conflict Analysis. DPPA is currently working with SRSGs and Special Envoys to convene high-level strategy sessions as part of efforts to develop context-specific approaches to promotewomen’s meaningful participation in UN-led and supported peace processes, in line with the 2019 Secretary-General’s Report onWomen, Peace Security and UNSCR 2493 (2019).

UN-Department of Peace Operations (DPO)

Gender Mainstreaming: DPO commits to systematically integrating gender and WPS analysis into all stages of planning, implementation and reporting, including through enhanced results monitoring, improved accountability, systematic evidence generation and gender responsive conflict analysis.

Update 29 January 2020: In 2019, nine missions collected data on 15 WPS indicators to track progress and trends, generate analysis, and inform decision making by leadership in mission and at HQ across participation, protection, prevention and cross-cutting issues relevant to DPO. In partnership with the EU and AU, a gender-conflict analysis for the Central African Republic was carried out. Missions increased their percentage of work plans including at least one gender specific goal, with MONUSCO, UNIFIL and UNMIK reaching 91%, 99% and 100% (up from 69%, 70%, and 21%), respectively. DPO developed and rolled out a Gender Equality and WPS Resource Pack, a capacity building and advocacy tool to support the integration of gender and WPS across mission functions, and promote good practice.

 

Participation: Promote women’s meaningful participation in conflict resolution, political and peace processes, including through examining best practices in overcoming systematic barriers.

Update 29 January 2020: DPO actively promoted women’s meaningful participation at HQ level and in mission, and good practices and recommendations were disseminated, including through a policy briefing and pamphlet launched during an UNGA side event on WPS.

Missions worked closely with women leaders and women civil society groups to support women’s meaningful participation inpeace processes, including national level negotiations, and implementation of peace agreements and local and national levels, as well as to increase women’s participation in political processes including elections.

For example, in Mali, the advocacy of MINUSMA and women leaders resulted in the appointment of two women to a 12- member constitutional reform expert committee. UNMISS supported high-level advocacy by women, including a forum with more than 2,000 women leaders and a meeting with the President of South Sudan who reiterated his commitment to women’s leadership. MINUSCA supported the participation of five women in the AU led peace process for CAR, where they were able to integrate key priorities and gender provisions into the final agreement.

 

Peacekeeping: Increasing the number of civilian and uniformed women in peacekeeping at all levels and in key positions, through implementation of the relevant gender parity strategies.

Update 29 January 2020: DPO made progress towards meeting goals in its 2018 Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy. The number of women deployed into individual Staff Officer and Military Observer positions rose by 2.1 percentage points from 12.3 to 14.4 percent, or a 17 percent increase. Formed contingents, largely infantry battalions traditionally lacking women members, continued to show slow, but steady improvement, with women. The number of women deployed as individual police officers (IPOs) has increased by 50 percent in the last two years, from 18 percent in 2017 to 27 percent in 2019. Among formed police units (FPUs), the number of women grew from 6 percent in 2017 to 10.4 percent this year, an increase of more than two-thirds. Efforts have been also made to increase the nomination of women justice and corrections experts for service as government-provided personnel (GPP). As of August 2019, 28 percent of all deployed GPP were women, surpassing the 26 percent target. Further efforts to reach the goal of 30 percent by 2022 include a women-only call for nominations and women-only pre-deployment trainings.

UN-International Organization of Migration (IOM)

Gender-based Violence: Implement IOM’s institutional Gender-Based Violence in Crises Framework in at least four crisis settings to ensure the safety, dignity, and well-being of women and girls are prioritized, integrated and coordinated in IOM’s programming. Train 4,500 staff members every year through a dedicated training to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse.

Update 29 January 2020: IOM rolled out the Institutional Framework on Addressing GBV in Crises in 3 countries - Nigeria, Bangladesh and South Sudan. Mission-wide action plans were developed to implement the strategic interventions from the Framework's Operational Model.

As of mid-2019, IOM has trained 2,796 staff in 38 offices on protection form sexual abuse and exploitation. IOM has also trained 2,671 external partners (UN, NGO, CSO and private sector) in 15 offices, and participated in inter-agency PSEA trainings in 17 missions.

Supporting office of Special Coordinator on manual.

 

Support governments and civil society in five countries in developing and implementing reparations for victims of conflict-related sexual violence and advocate for the inclusion of sexual violence into large-scale victims’ reparations programmes and policies.

Update 29 January 2020: IOM has supported national authorities and civil society to advance reparations for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in 5 countries - BiH, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Colombia.

 

Participation: Implement strategies to ensure women’s and girl’s participation and voice are promoted in at least four crisis responses.

Update 29 January 2020: IOM is currently implementing dedicated programmes to increase women's participation in decision-making and humanitarian action in four additional countries since April 2019 - Bangladesh, Nigeria, South Sudan and Ethiopia, in addition to the 7 ongoing projects elsewhere.

 

Gender Mainstreaming: In line with UN SWAP commitments, operationalize and implement the IOM gender marker and increase reporting on gender equality results.

Update 29 January 2020: IOM organized specific face-to-face training sessions in several regions to enhance capacity to use the new IOM gender marker.

UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA)

Data: ODA commits to tracking and make publicly available data gender- disaggregated data on participation in multilateral meetings on disarmament.

Reporting: ODA will compile and release an updated database for ODA staff on female experts in disarmament.

Capacity Building: ODA will conduct training for staff of the Office for Disarmament Affairs and its Regional Centers on integrating gender perspectives into disarmament and arms control policies and frameworks.

ODA will strengthen the small arms component in the WPS framework through the development and publication of an online training on gender mainstreaming in small arms control for staff of relevant UN departments, as well as wider communities of practitioners. This will also include theestablishment a coaching programme for ODA’s regional centers on the subject; the implementation of six in-country training programmes on gender-mainstreaming small arms control, which includes workshops with the national coordinating bodies on small arms on the inclusion of gender dimensions in small arms National Action Plans (NAPs) and other relevant policy and legislative frameworks, including on the collection and analysis of sex- and age-disaggregated data; and a one-day training course for small arms and light weapons desk officers from the secretariats of sub-regional and regional organizations with a view to promoting gender aspects in regional initiatives.

Advocacy: Strengthen the disarmament and arms control component in broader international policy agendas on gender equality and women’sempowerment, in particular the Women, Peace and Security framework and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Support the operationalization of the Modular Small-arms-control Implementation Compendium (MOSAIC) module on “Women, men and the gendered nature of small arms and light weapons” in the design, implementation and evaluation of small arms and light weapon control initiatives.

Participation: As an International Gender Champion, pledge not to sit on any single-gendered panels and pledge to raise global awareness about the gendered impact of weapons from Small Arms and Light Weapons to Weapons of Mass Destruction.

UN Office for Counter Terrorism (OCT)

Gender Mainstreaming: OCT commits to integrate gender in its interventions and advocate that it is addressed by Member States and especially increase support to women victim affected by SGBV. OCT will also support the recruitment of a full-time Gender Advisor and will be implementation a full- fledged gender programme.

Financial commitments: Pledge seed funding to support projects and work of the Coordination Compact Working Group on Gender.

UN-SRSG for Children and Armed Conflict

Reporting: UN Office for Children and Armed conflict will ensure data is disaggregated by gender in all reports and a specific focus on girls is included in one report.

Advocacy: Advocate for girls affected by conflict through the new ACT Campaign to protect children affected by conflict between April 2019 and October 2020, as well as include advocacy in speeches of the SRSG, in events held through that same period. Ensure girls and gender-specific elements are included in the Global Coalition for Reintegration roadmap throughout 2019 and 2020.

UN Women

Human Rights: UN Women intends to strengthen its contribution to the protection of women human rights defenders, women peacebuilders and women’s civil society organizations and activists. To this end, UN Women will continue to call for increased funding for them, including through the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund, implement its new strategy to support women human rights defenders, and conduct research on existing commitments, efforts, recommendations and trends in this area to partner with and amplify the efforts of actors currently providing urgent protection measures for women leaders and women human rights defenders in conflict- affected settings.

Update 29 January 2020

In 2020, UN Women is piloting our organizational strategy on support and protection for WHRDs in Ukraine, Colombia, Brazil, Myanmar, and Kenya.

WPHF, which now funds more than 100 civil society organizations, is establishing a special window on participation of women peacebuilders in peace processes.

Our experts on investigation and documentation of gender-based violence will continue to document attacks on WHRDs, women politicians, and women peacebuilders (e.g. we deployed more than 25 experts to investigations in countries such as Yemen, Syria, or Venezuela).

We will be supporting the advocacy efforts of other actors. For example, ICAN’s “Call to Action for Women Peacebuilders” andwe are working with the DR and the UK on an upcoming Arria Formula meeting on reprisals to WHRDSs that brief the Security Council (a record 23 women briefed the Council in country-specific meetings last year).

 

Women’s Economic Empowerment: UN Women commits to continue to promote women’s economic security and access to resources and decision- making related to peacebuilding, post-conflict planning, and economic recovery, and will seek to establish a new partnership with the World Bank on gender-responsive reconstruction.

Update 29 January 2020

The discussion on women’s economic empowerment is being brought into the wide conversation on sustaining peace with PBSO and WB. Recommendations will be proposed for the 2020 Review of Peacebuilding Architecture and voiced at the meeting of the Peacebuilding Commission on WPS by local women peacebuilders.

We plan a series of meetings with the WB in April to discuss partnership.

 

Peacekeeping: Will support the UN’s efforts to increase the number of women in uniformed services in peacekeeping and in national security institutions and implementation of the gender parity strategy for uniformed personnel in peace operations.

Update 29 January 2020

The Elsie Initiative Fund is now fully functioning, hosted by UN Women. Nearly 20 million have been donated or pledged, more than half of it by Canada but also with substantial contributions from the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, Norway, and Finland. We issued a first call for letters of interest, received 36, and 6 TCCs and PCCs and 1 UN entity were invited to send a detailed proposal for funding, for review by early April. Additionally, the Elsie Secretariat is working with the DCAF - the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance, on opportunities to conduct a Barrier Assessment for countries that were unable to be supported to progress to the detailed submission phase.

We have continued our FMOC initiative. Since April last year there have been 3 more courses bringing the total to 460 military officers from 30 different countries prepared to deploy in peace operations, and we expect to conduct two or three more by the 20th anniversary.

The numbers are finally moving, after many years of stagnation: from 3 to over 5 percent in the military (including almost 20 percent of military experts in mission), and from 10 to 15 percent in the police component.

 

Financing: Commits to expanding financing of the women, peace and security agenda. Apart from ongoing work with the Peacebuilding Fund and the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund, UN Women will encourage the MPTFO to mandate financial tracking for all other relevant funds, dial up its advocacy with key donors and OECD-DAC to increase allocations, earmarking, and tracking of resources to support WPS, following the good example already set by some donors and entities.

Update 29 January 2020

UN Women, as the Secretariat of the WPHF, has secured 34 million USD for civil society organizations in crisis settings. We continue to work with the PBF, which devoted 40 percent of its funding to gender-responsive peacebuilding in 2019.

UN Women will encourage the MPTFO to mandate financial tracking for all other relevant funds, dial up its advocacy with key donors and OECD-DAC to increase allocations, earmarking, and tracking of resources to support WPS, following the good example already set by some donors and entities.

 

Participation: Commits to support the implementation of the operational recommendations on women’s participation in peace processes in the Secretary-General’s annual reports on women, peace and security with the goal of having no UN-supported peace processes that exclude women by 2020.

Update 29 January 2020

Following the SG’s 2019 report on WPS recommending that the WPHF opens a new rapid response window on women’sparticipation in peace processes, UN Women as the Secretariat of the WPHF has launched a wide consultation process for the design of the new window which will be launched in 2020.

We continue to provide on-demand expertise and support to women peacemakers and other peace actors (examples: ongoing work in Afghanistan, Cameroon, CAR, Colombia, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Sudan, South Sudan and Syria for example, technical support to Finland and Spain ahead of their launch of the 2025 Commitment, support to 6 regional mediation networks and the Alliance, as well as some national mediation networks).

Support the preparation of knowledge products and tools to ensure that the research priorities identified at the May 2018 Expert Group Meeting are followed up on, including by exploring platforms for regular coordination and development of research priorities among relevant experts: MENA policy briefs; research papers on the role of States in advancing women’s participation in peace processes, and on documenting the work of women mediators in the Mediterranean region.

Support the organization of global and regional meetings of networks of women mediators in 2019 and 2020 as well as the Global convening in Tunis in November 2019 and the high-level seminar in Rome in December 2019.​

 

Gender Mainstreaming: Build on the outcomes of the joint DPO/UN Women initiative on gender-responsive conflict analysis and carry out similar work in special political missions and UN country teams, and partner with key entities to develop system-wide minimum requirements for gender-responsive conflict analysis and integrate it into larger UN-wide strategic planning processes.

Update 29 January 2020:

UN Women partnered with DPO. Some results:

  • SG’s transition planning directive now has a requirement of human rights and gender analysis to inform transition planning

  • Three joint missions undertaken between 2018-2019 in Liberia, Haiti, Sudan (Darfur) to undertake a joint UN gender-responsive conflict analysis to inform transitions calendar and plans in Sudan and Haiti, and UNDAF in Liberia

  • A methodology has been developed and being tested and discussed within the UN

UN Women undertook gender analysis of situations in Guatemala, El-Salvador, Honduras and Mexico, briefings are being scheduled for the week of 10 Feb with relevant partners for joint planning of addressing WPS issues through UN’s work on the ground.

An internal UN discussion is planned on Feb 11 on the way forward with the draft methodology, and integrating gender in the IAP and relevant policies that are currently being developed or reviewed.

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

Participation: WILPF commits to continue mobilizing to strengthen women's meaningful participation in peace processes, including by mobilizing via #KoreaPeaceNow for a peace agreement in the Koreas by 2020 with women at the table.

WILPF commits to ensuring the participation of women from conflict areas in Arria Formula meetings of the Security Council, with particular emphasis on the need to inform on effectiveness of peacekeeping mandates.

National Action Plan: WILPF commits to strengthen accountability on Women, Peace and Security by providing transparent monitoring of National Action Plans on UNSCR 1325

Advocacy: WILPF commits to mobilizing to #MoveTheMoney from war to gender equality and peace by sharing tools for leveraging the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to accelerate WPS.

WILPF commits to mobilizing for states to implement the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) gender criterion.

WILPF commits to continue mobilizing for a binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights to address corporate power and strengthen holistic accountability 

WILPF commits to advocating for the increased presence of WPS advisors in the Conference of the State parties to the ATT to specifically address its gender and human rights provisions.

WILPF commits to continue injecting WPS analysis and language, particularly on arms trade and fiscal austerity, into the UN human rights mechanisms.

WILPF commits to raise on a regular basis and in all forums the issue of climate change and environmental degradation as the most dangerous threats to peace and security and a major issue for the WPS agenda, and seek to ensure inclusion of relevant actions into NAPs.